Graph of the Day: Germany reaches 56% renewables for 2020

The transition of the German electricity grid continues apace with a major new milestone achieved for the first five months of 2020 – a 56 per cent share for renewable energy, leaving fossil fuels to account for less than one third of the total output for the year to date.

The new milestone was noted on the Energy Charts service run by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, and tweeted by energy analyst Kees van der Leun on Monday.

It noted that so far in 2020, wind has made up 33 per cent of total output and solar 10 per cent. Bio-energy (mostly biogas) was also 10 per cent and hydro-power (4 per cent) makes up the rest of the renewable energy component. A further 12 per cent goes to nuclear, leaving a little over 30 per cent for fossil fuels (brown coal, black coal and gas).

The share of renewables is about the same as the South Australia grid, although in South Australia’s case its renewable energy contribution comes entirely from wind and solar, and the state also lies at the end of a long hand stringy grid, rather than  in the centre of a well-connected energy market, which makes trading with other countries (imports and exports) that much easier.