At the beginning of the year, after a long break, wind power was once again the most important source of electricity in Germany. In the first quarter, the renewable energy form with a total generation share of 32.2 percent surpassed coal, which came to 30.0 percent. Most recently, wind power was the largest source of energy in the second quarter of 2020, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office.
However, conventional energy sources, including coal, gas and nuclear energy, accounted for more than half of German electricity production at 51.4 percent. Renewable energy sources such as wind, hydroelectric power, photovoltaics and biogas accounted for 48.6 percent in the first three months of the year.
With electricity generation falling by a total of 7.8 percent to 132.8 billion kilowatt hours, nuclear power was already down 32.7 percent before the last three German nuclear power plants were shut down on April 15. Electricity production from coal also fell sharply by 12.1 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year, while wind power was only 0.7 percent weaker.
Year on year, the amount of electricity exported from Germany fell by 9.8 percent to 21.3 billion kilowatt hours. At the same time, imports rose by 15.2 percent to 12.1 billion kilowatt hours.
