Source: Energy & Management Powernews, March 18, 2022
The share of coal-fired electricity generated in Germany increased by almost a quarter in 2021. Overall, conventional energy sources accounted for nearly 58%.
Now it is official. Coal was last year by far the most important energy source for power generation in Germany. According to the Federal Statistical Office, the share of coal-fired electricity in the total amount fed into the grid rose to 30.2%. Around 156 billion kWh came from coal-fired power plants - almost a quarter more year-on-year. In 2020, the figure was 125 billion kWh, with a share of 24.8% at that time.
The share of electricity from nuclear power plants increased by 7.4% to a good 65 billion kWh in 2021, with the nuclear share reaching 12.6%. Natural gas, on the other hand, contributed 5.8% less to electricity generation, with 65 billion kWh accounted for by this energy source, compared with 69 billion kWh the year before. The development in the third quarter of 2021 is striking: compared with the same quarter of the previous year, electricity feed-in from natural gas fell by 38.9%, as calculated by the Federal Statistical Office.
Together, conventional energy sources supplied 298 billion kWh - an increase of 11.7%. Their share of electricity feed-in climbed to 57.6%; in 2020, it was 53%.
Red figures for renewables
The statisticians determined a downward trend throughout for renewable energy sources. Electricity feed-in from wind power plants flattened from 128.7 to 115.5 billion kWh. Their share was a good 21%. Biogas electricity decreased from 30.2 to 29.9 billion kWh, and electricity from photovoltaic plants from 45.4 to 45.2 billion kWh. Hydroelectric plants produced 18.5 billion kWh, which was 0.5 billion kWh less than in the previous year.
The bottom line is that renewables contributed 219.6 billion kWh in 2021 according to the preliminary official calculations, the equivalent of almost minus 8% compared to the year before. The share of renewables decreased from 47.1 to 42.4%.
The total amount of electricity fed into the grid was just under 518 billion kWh. This was 2.6% more than in 2020, but about 3% less than in the year before the Corona crisis began.
More imports, more exports
The amount of imported electricity increased by 7.7 percentage points in 2021 compared to 2020, according to statisticians. It amounted to 51.7 billion kWh. As in previous years, the most important electricity supplier was France, but imports from there fell by almost 25% to 9.8 billion kWh. It was followed by the Netherlands with 7.6 billion kWh and Austria with 6.5 billion kWh. Imports from the Czech Republic almost doubled to 6.1 billion kWh. Electricity exports from Germany rose by a total of 5% to 70.3 billion kWh.
Author: Manfred Fischer
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