FRANKFURT: Renewable energy accounted for 50.3 per cent of Germany’s power consumption in the first three months of the year, data from utility group BDEW and the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (ZSW) showed on Friday.
The preliminary figures partly reflected lower power consumption in the first three months of 2023 when electricity usage fell 6.4 per cent year-on-year to 138.1 terawatt hours (TWh), BDEW noted in a statement.
Renewables accounted for 49.2 per cent of the mix in the first three months of 2022.
The data was calculated under European Union requirements that base the share on usage rather than production, a method also adopted by the Berlin government for its climate target definitions, BDEW said.
“Because the renewable share is measured by its share in overall usage, lower (electricity) consumption means a higher relative share and vice versa,” it added.
Looking at domestic electricity production, the two research bodies recorded a fall of 8.3 per cent to 147.5 TWh in the three-month period, including production volumes directed for export.
Within the output total, renewables, at 69.5 TWh, accounted for a share of 47.1 per cent, up from 45.1 per cent in the first three months of 2022, even as green power production volumes dropped 4.3 per cent.
Conventional energy sources – nuclear, coal, natural gas and oil – provided 78 TWh within the generation total, down from 88.3 TWh a year earlier.
