Renewables provided nearly half of Germany's electricity in the first six months of 2022, according to preliminary figures released by the energy industry association BDEW and research institute ZSW. Solar panels, wind turbines, biogas plants and other installations met 49 percent of electricity demand, up 6 percentage points from a year earlier. Wind turbines, the most important renewable energy source, increased their share from 17% to 21% and solar panels from 10% to 12%, while the country's electricity consumption fell slightly by 2 billion kWh to 281 billion kWh. Renewable energy generated a total of 139 billion kWh and exported 17 billion kWh.
Reduced gas flows from Russia put Germany's energy supply in a special situation. The safest way to prevent this from happening in the future is to build renewable energy installations quickly, and the lack of wind power floor space will continue to be one of the biggest barriers to renewable energy expansion in the country.
