In a nutshell: The economics of renewable energy in Germany

in Germany, for the first time, more than 50 per cent of electricity was generated from renewable energy. More precisely: 52 per cent of the electricity consumed in the first half of 2023 was generated from renewable sources, an increase of three percentage points year on year.

There are mainly two sources of renewable energy: About 42 per cent of the electricity generated by renewable energies comes from land-based wind turbines and 25 per cent from solar plants.

Offshore wind makes up only a small part. Less than a quarter of wind energy comes from offshore wind turbines.

But this will change. Recently the leaders of nine European governments pledged to work together to roughly quadruple the amount of offshore wind generation capacity in the North Sea and nearby waters by 2030 and to increase it by about tenfold by 2050.

But what if the wind doesn’t blow? Will we have no electricity at some times in the future? Unlikely. There are two ways to solve the problem: a better network plus the ability to store energy. 

First, a network of high-capacity cables across Europe is needed – and is currently being built – so, for example, power generated by nuclear plants in France can go to Britain or hydropower from Norway to Germany. Second, renewable energy sources require ways of storing power at times of excess generation and access to flows from elsewhere when there are power deficits.

The crucial question is, will technological change progress fast enough for the climate targets to be met.

We can be optimistic. History teaches that if you allow people to search for new ideas, they will usually be found. People are smart. A lot of people working together are capable of many things.

Nutshell in a nutshell: For the first time in Germany more than 50 per cent of electricity was generated from renewable energy – mainly from wind turbines and solar plants. Offshore wind makes up only a small part but is getting more and more important. There are two ways to solve the problem of variable production with renewable energy: a better network plus the ability to store energy.