Renewables share in German public electricity supply reaches record high in July – researchers

Renewable energy supplied a record of 69.2 percent of Germany’s public net electricity generation in July 2023, according to data by research institute Fraunhofer ISE. Due to favourable weather conditions, wind power alone contributed about 29 percent. At about 23 percent, the solar power share was lower compared to May and June, also due to the weather. Beyond good conditions for wind power, Focus reported that another reason for the high renewables share was considerable lower electricity consumption. “Traditionally, electricity demand is lowest in the summer months, but apart from this, difficult conditions for industry and greater efforts to save energy are causing a decline in consumption across Europe,” Focus reported. Fossil fuels such as coal were the first to fall victim to the drop in consumption, also due to lower prices for renewables. In the first half of 2023, renewables occupied a 57.7 percent share in net public electricity supply, Fraunhofer ISE reported last month. As renewable power is expanded across Europe, several other countries saw record electricity generation from wind and solar for the month of July. These sources produced more power than any July before in Belgium, Poland and France, said Fraunhofer ISE’s Bruno Burger.

Fraunhofer ISE says net public electricity supply is “the electricity mix that actually comes out of the socket at home.” It includes only the generation from power plants for public electricity supply – it does not include power plants for large industry nor the electricity power plants use for their operation. In contrast, Germany’s target to reach an 80 percent renewables share by 2030 refers to gross power consumption. As large industry still often uses coal or gas plants, the renewables share in gross power consumption is several percentage points lower than the share in public supply.