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Electricity generation from coal slumped to a record low in Germany in the second quarter of 2024 amid an ongoing surge in renewable energy installations, according to the country’s grid agency, BNetzA.
The world’s third-largest economy shut its last nuclear plants in April 2023, stoking concerns that it would have to increase its reliance on coal and slow down the energy transition. But its use of the dirtiest fossil fuel has since declined thanks to wind and solar additions and a slight increase in electricity imports from neighbouring countries.
Renewables accounted for 65.3% of German electricity generation in the second quarter, with output up 8.8% in a year. Solar PV’s share of the mix rose 2.6 percentage points to 24.3%, while wind’s share advanced 2.5 percentage points to 26.7%.
Germany has added 10GW of new solar PV capacity over the past year, alongside 2.5GW of new onshore wind.
That has helped push output from lignite coal plants down 18.3% in a year, and production from hard coal facilities 38.4% lower. Gas plants delivered 3.8% less power than the same period a year before.
Meanwhile, wholesale power prices in the Germany/Luxembourg bidding zone were down 26.9% compared to a year before, though they remain higher than the regional average.
