Electricity Sources in Germany

Ryan Przybocki
December 15, 2023

Submitted as coursework for PH240, Stanford University, Fall 2023

Introduction

Fig. 1: Sources of electricity for Germany in the month of September 2023. [7, 8] (Image source: R. Przybocki.)

In 2022, Germany's gross power consumption amounted to 555 TWh. [1] 2022 was marked by instability and uncertainty in Germany's energy economy, largely due to the response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline, casting uncertainty on the future of natural gas imports from Russia. [2,3] Russian natural gas imports amounted to 34.8% of Germany's natural gas usage at the start of 2022, which fell to 0% by September 2022. [4] Since then, Germany has also fully phased out the use of nuclear power as of April 2023. [5]

The German government in 2021 set a target for 80% of the country's energy to come from renewable sources by 2030, a sharp increase from the 47% figure in 2022. [6] This goal is in place now with the recent backdrop of hostile foreign relations changing the natural gas economy and denuclearization eliminating an energy source from consideration. With this context in mind, it is expected that the sources for German power consumed will be in flux for the decade ahead. The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the sources for Germany's electricity in September 2023 following the Russia conflict and the closing down of nuclear plants.

Data

The breakdown of electricity generation by source is shown in Fig. 1, with data reported by the GECF Monthly Report. [7] The total electricity generation for the month of September amounted to 34 TWh, 44% of which was generated by the mix of coal and gas. The remaining 56% came from renewable energy sources: solar at 21%, wind at 20%, biofuels at 10%, and hydro power at 5%.

The total demand figure of 34 TWh represents a 21% drop compared to September 2022. [7] Despite the lower demand, the gross electricity generation from natural gas remained relatively stable year-on year, supplying 5.8 TWh in September 2023 compared to 5.7 TWh in September 2022. [1] Larger increases compared to the previous year came from the hydro and solar industries, supplying an additional 0.4 and 1.7 TWh, respectively. The most significant year-on-year decreases were observed in coal, where production fell from 15.9 to 9.2 TWh, and nuclear, where denuclearization eliminated the entire supply, which was 2.9 TWh in September 2022. The wind sector also saw a drop in production from 8.1 TWh to 6.8 TWh, and biofuels fell from 3.7 TWh to 3.4 TWh. In total, monthly electricity generation from renewable sources experienced a modest increase from 18.5 to 19.0 TWh, while that from non-renewable sources (including nuclear) dropped from 24.7 to 15.0 TWh.

Conclusion

The sources of electricity in Germany currently comprise a roughly balanced mix of fossil fuels and renewable sources as of September 2023. As this report has used recent monthly data, it should be emphasized that the power generation statistics are very much in flux over the course of the year, and month-to-month changes are significant. However, we can look to the same months of the previous year to observe possible trends. Prominent year-on-year changes are notable both in the total electricity consumption and in the specific sources used to generate electricity. The total energy generated via renewable sources has changed little from September 2022, while that from fossil fuels and nuclear has fallen nearly 40%. Although the proportional share of renewables has increased notably, it is largely due to the drop in total energy consumption. It is anticipated that this drop cannot continue unabated, thus the goal of 80% renewable energy will require significant increases from the renewable sectors.

© Ryan Przybocki. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.