Windiest year in over a decade enabled Germany's 2023 renewables "success" – weather service

The year 2023 was the windiest in Germany in more than 15 years, providing excellent conditions for wind electricity generation, said Germany's National Meteorological Service (DWD). In 2023, the average wind speed across Germany at a height of 100 metres – a typical hub height for wind turbines in this country – was just under 6 metres per second (m/s), DWD said. Wind speeds were significantly higher than the long-term average, particularly in the winter months of January, November and December and reached the highest level since 2007. Last year was also a good one for solar PV, but not a record year like 2022, DWD added. "From a meteorological perspective, 2023 was a successful year for the use of renewable energies in Germany," DWD vice president Renate Hagedorn commented.

The expansion of onshore wind power in Germany is picking up again and it appears that a “politically caused” dent in newly installed capacity between 2019 and 2021 has been overcome, industry lobby group BWE said earlier this month. Preliminary data by energy market research group AG Energiebilanzen (AGEB) showed that onshore wind turbines produced a record 114.2 terawatt hours (TWh) in Germany in 2023, while solar PV produced a record 61.1 TWh. In January, the DWD had said that 2023 also marked Germany's hottest year since records began in 1881, warning that the country had to "take intensive action to protect the climate and adapt to the damage caused by extreme weather events."