Record amounts of solar and wind energy generation in Germany have helped push the country’s share of renewables to 31 per cent of electricity production for the first half of 2014, new data has shown.
According a newly launched website by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Germany’s solar output increased by 28 per cent over the same period last year, while wind power grew by 19 per cent.
Along with contributions from hydro and biomass, renewable energy sources in Germany generated a combined total of 81GWh for the year to June 30.
Solar and wind energy combined to make up 17 per cent of total generation.
Apart from renewables, nuclear output was steady, while brown coal output fell 4 per cent from the same period a year earlier, hard coal fell 11 per cent and gas power fell 25 per cent.
The collapse in Europe’s carbon price has meant that while gas has been priced out of the market, and has halved since 2010, the output of brown coal is above the 10 year average, and hard coal is on a par with recent years.
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