Solar has record-breaking week in Germany, provides 23% of generation

Solar generation in Germany experienced its best week yet, accounting for 23 per cent of the country’s net electricity generation for the week starting  April 6, helping renewable power generation reach a similarly impressive 55.4 per cent share.

Data provided by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, and highlighted on Twitter by Dr. Bruno Burger, Fraunhofer ISE’s head of department New Devices and Technologies, showed the weekly share of German solar electricity generation set a new German record for weekly solar generation.

Solar’s 23 per cent of electricity generation helped keep German renewable generation above 50% for the fifth week in a row. Wind energy provided the second largest share of electricity generation last week, accounting for 16.9 per cent of the total, followed by nuclear power with 16.2 per cent. Coal-fired power, on the other hand, only provided just over 18 per cent (made up of brown coal, 14.4%, and hard coal, 3.9%).

Across the first fifteen weeks of 2020, only three weeks saw renewable energy fall below the 50% threshold of net public electricity generation – and one of those weeks renewables only fell below 50% by 1.1%. The highest weekly share of Germany’s electricity generation contributed by renewables came in the eighth week of the year (February 17 to 23), providing 69.4% of the country’s total.

Unsurprisingly, for anyone paying attention to Europe’s weather over the first couple of months of 2020 – or even those paying attention to European wind generation figures – wind energy provided 54.6% of total electricity generation during the 8^th week of the year.

At the same time, Germany’s Renewable Energy Act (EEG) – which guarantees producers of renewable power in Germany 20 years of Feed-in Tariff payments per kWh – saw its account balance continue to drop, and fall to €1.89 billion, as compared to €6 billion in the same month a year earlier.

According to Bruno Burger, “The decline compared to 2019 is mainly due to lower revenues due to lower Day Ahead electricity prices.”