Fraunhofer Institute ISE illuminates net power generation 2022

Source: Energy & Management Powernews , January 04 2023

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) determined that renewable energies accounted for 49.6 percent of net electricity generation and 50.3 percent of the load.

In 2022, renewable plants generated half of the electricity required in Germany. According to the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE), only photovoltaics achieved the expansion targets set by the German government and increased its contribution to electricity generation by 19 percent. The evaluation is based on the data platform energy-charts.info. According to the report, German photovoltaic systems produced about 58 billion kWh of electricity in 2022, of which about 53 billion kWh were fed into the public grid and 5 billion kWh were self-consumed.

Renewable energy in figures

The addition of 6,100 MW of PV systems increased installed capacity to about 66,000 MW. "This was the highest photovoltaic addition since 2013," ISE reports. From April to August and in October 2022, monthly electricity generation from photovoltaic plants was higher than that from coal-fired power plants and from March to September higher than that from gas-fired power plants. Overall, electricity generation from all renewable sources increased 8.5 percent from the previous year.

For onshore wind, 2022 was an average year; offshore wind tended to be below average. Together, wind power generated around 123 billion kWh of electricity, compared with 112 billion kWh in 2021. The addition of wind turbines was again very weak both onshore and offshore. At the end of November 2022, there were only 2,100 MW more installed onshore than in the previous year, and 300 MW at sea.

Hydroelectricity was 3 billion kWh below the 2021 figure, at 16 billion kWh, due to the hot and dry summer in generation. Biomass was slightly above the previous year's figure, with little change in installed capacity, the ISE sums up.

High prices lead to electricity savings

The load in the power grid was 484 billion kWh. This was about 20 billion kWh less than in 2021. ISE suspects that electricity was saved significantly due to high electricity prices and higher temperatures. The load includes electricity consumption and grid losses, but not pumped-storage power consumption and self-consumption by conventional power plants.

The collapse of natural gas imports from Russia and the failure of half of France's nuclear power plant fleet led to high electricity prices in 2022. Therefore, compared to the previous year, very flexible generation from natural gas increased by 1.7 percent despite gas shortages and high prices. Coal-fired generation, which had been declining since 2013, now rose for the third year in a row. Due to the shutdown of the three nuclear power plants Grohnde, Gundremmingen C and Brokdorf, generation from nuclear power fell by 50 percent from 65 billion kWh to 33 billion kWh.

Export surplus and exchange electricity prices rose sharply

In 2022, German electricity trade generated an export surplus of around 26 billion kWh, 9 billion kWh more than in 2021. Most of the exports went to Austria and France, followed by Switzerland and Luxembourg. Germany imported electricity from Denmark, from Norway and from Sweden.

The Federal Network Agency summarized the electricity price development in a table.

German day-ahead wholesale electricity price in comparison 2022-2021:

Up-to-date electricity data for 44 European countries are available in the Energy Charts.

Author: Susanne Harmsen