“Short-lived gas reversal”
In the first half of the year gas power plants produced 18 percent more electricity than in the same period last year, according to an internal report by the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW), Manuel Berkel writes in Bizz Energy. The share of gas in Germany’s electricity generating sources rose from 9.4 percent for all of 2015 to 11.5 percent in the first half of this year. The figures are surprising for the German energy market, which has seen the share of gas in the electricity mix continually decline since 2011, the article says. The electricity share from hard coal, meanwhile, fell 3 percent while that of brown coal, or lignite, dropped by 2 percent. The increase in gas usage is attributable to its declining market price: a year ago the price of gas was 25 euros per megawatt-hour compared to 22 euros in 2016. Gas is expected to reach 16 euros over the next three years. Experts say the downwards trend in gas prices will not continue.
Read the article in German here.