Power generation mix in Germany

Author: Dr. Klaus Hassmann, Cluster Energietechnik (As of: November 2016) In the present Internet portal "Energy transition", the Cluster Energietechnik aims not only to describe the individual building blocks of the energy transition technically, but also to present the development of the various primary energy sources for power generation as clearly as possible. The starting year is 2010, the year before the decision of the German government to start the energy transition. The occasion was, as is generally known, the reactor disaster in Fukushima, Japan, with the consequence to take the nuclear power plants in Germany (D) gradually until 2022 from the network. This linkage of the two important measures is taken into account by the fact that, starting with the year 2015, the development of nuclear energy in Europe and worldwide is also presented and also updated in this article. The numerical values for gross electricity generation in Germany as well as for  nuclear energy were taken from an annually published brochure of the German Atomic Forum; the editor cites his own statistics as well as published results of the AG Energiebilanzen.

The Electricity Turnaround in Germany

In Table 1, the gross electricity quantities of the individual primary energy sources are compared in terawatt hours (TWh). The percentages of the respective energy carrier in the groups (underlined) refer to the totals of the respective groups (for FK, e.g., to 358 TWh); the totals of the groups refer to the total of all groups (e.g., 57% of the electricity generation in D from FK).

The row "Total Energy Sources" shows a continuous increase except for a dip in gross electricity generation in 2014, suggesting an increasing consumption in D. The dip is due to the fact that the drop in FCs (especially gas-fired plants, which suffer from their subordinate role on the power exchange) could not be compensated by the increase in RES. Nevertheless, security of supply was ensured - in case self-generation was not sufficient through electricity imports. In the individual groups, FC and KE show the downward trend desired by policy makers, which is overcompensated by the addition of RE (the relatively low annual generation hours of PV and wind require a high annual addition of installed capacity) except for the mentioned dip.

Nuclear energy

Table 2: Statistics Nuclear Energy Europe/World in 2015

Table 2 lists a total of 31 countries separately for Europe and the world, that operate nuclear power plants (NPPs) and 2 countries (Belarus and the United Arab Emirates) that do not yet have NPPs but are building them. For each country, the number of NPPs in operation, their total gross capacity in gigawatts, and NPP electricity generation relative to total electricity in the country, in Europe, in the region excluding Europe, and totals for the world are included; plants under construction in the countries and regions (number and capacity in GW) are also listed. There are 441 NPPs operating worldwide, with a total of 409 GW; total electricity generation from NPPs in 2015 was 2440 TWh; in the 31 countries, on average, 14% of the total electricity generated is from nuclear power. The highest country share was generated by France with 76%, followed by Ukraine with 59%. In Germany, the share dropped from 22% in 2010 to only 14% in 2015. Germany is therefore exactly at the same level as the global average. The world-wide average operating time of the NPP amounts to approximately 6000 h in the year 2015; in comparison this value was in D with clearly over 7000 hours.

In the follow-up of the events of Fukushima and under the influence of the KE exit in Germany some states announced the intention to drive back the nuclear energy - concrete numbers were not called however. The interested reader will be able to follow in the continuation of this article, which countries also follow words with deeds.