Prof. Maja Göpel is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Federal Government and a member of Scientists for Future. She criticizes that Germany's climate goals cannot be achieved with the climate package of the Grand Coalition.
"The reactions to the key points on climate protection adopted by the Climate Cabinet last Friday are predominantly negative from the point of view of renewable energies. Representatives of associations are positive about the planned increase in the construction of offshore wind farms. "The lifting of the 52 GW cap on photovoltaics is also to be welcomed," says Marie-Luise Wolff, President of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW). The BDEW President also sees it as positive that the coalition was finally able to bring itself to exempt energy storage systems from existing levies." www.solarserver.de/...klimaschutzplaene-nicht-ausreichend.html
The Frankfurter Rundschau writes: "The climate policy reform package that the grand coalition has now brought about does not live up to the claim. More electric cars on the road, more rail travel, less flying - measures that advance this are steps in the right direction. But instead of specifically displacing fossil energies, a hodgepodge of expensive subsidy measures is supposed to encourage people to act in a climate-friendly way. What is lacking above all is a consistent dismantling of subsidies that are harmful to the climate and the environment, which have just the opposite effect and amount to more than 50 billion euros annually - including the diesel privilege and the commuter tax allowance. They prevent climate-damaging behaviour from becoming expensive and climate-friendly behaviour from becoming worthwhile. Their gradual melting would also free up funds to finance the climate protection turnaround. But the grand coalition has once again caved in to the lobby interests that are stonewalling against it, and the conjured-up climate crisis does nothing to change that." www.fr.de/meinung/pillepalle-20-klimaschutzpaket-wird-anspruch-weitem-nicht-gerecht-13023518.html
In the EEG draft The German government plans to make a number of changes in the rooftop PV segment. According to information from pv magazine, an exemption from trade tax is planned and neighbourhood solutions are to become possible.
BSW-Solar concludes: "The German government urgently needs to make improvements, otherwise we will continue to head at high speed towards a climate protection and electricity generation gap. The compromise bill is far too timid, and at the same time too many important points are postponed. Unacceptable are the planned restrictions on the promotion of new larger solar roofs", explained Carsten Körnig, CEO of BSW-Solar.
In 2013, ABG FRANKFURT HOLDING built an apartment building with 17 residential units at Cordierstrasse 4 in Frankfurt am Main as a passive house with energy gain in an existing neighbourhood. The orientation of the new replacement building, which was unfavourable for solar optimisation, posed particular challenges in achieving an energy surplus in the annual balance.
This final report documents the results of the measurement period from July 2014 to June 2016.
Net public electricity generation reached a record share of 59.7 per cent in 2023. The share of the load was 57.1 per cent. This is the result of an analysis presented today by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. New records were set for wind and solar power in 2023. In contrast, generation from lignite (-27 per cent) and hard coal (-35 per cent) fell sharply. Photovoltaics stood out in the expansion of generation capacity: at around 14 gigawatts, the expansion was in double digits for the first time and significantly exceeded the German government's statutory climate protection target. Source of the data is the platform energy-charts.info
Photovoltaic systems generated approx. 59.9 TWh in 2023, of which 53.5 TWh was fed into the public grid and 6.4 TWh was used for self-consumption. At around 9 TWh, June 2023 was the month with the highest solar power generation ever. The maximum solar output of 40.1 GW was reached on 7 July at 13:15, which corresponded to a 68% share of electricity generation. In 2023, the expansion of photovoltaics significantly exceeded the German government's targets: instead of the planned 9 gigawatts, 13.2 gigawatts were installed by November; according to preliminary data, this will be more than 14 gigawatts by the end of 2023. This is a sharp increase compared to 2022 (7.44 GW). This means that PV expansion in Germany has reached double digits for the first time.
The Hydropower increased from 17.5 TWh in 2022 to 20.5 TWh. The installed capacity of 4.94 GW has hardly changed compared to previous years.
The Biomass at 42.3 TWh was at the level of 2022 (42.2 TWh). The installed capacity is 9 GW.
In total, the renewable energies approx. 260 TWh in 2023, around 7.2 per cent more than in the previous year (242 TWh). The share of renewable energy generated in Germany in the load, i.e. the electricity mix that actually comes out of the socket, was 57.1 per cent compared to 50.2 per cent in 2022. In addition to net public electricity generation, total net electricity generation also includes in-house generation by industry and commerce, which is mainly generated using gas. The share of renewable energies in total net electricity generation, including the power plants of "businesses in the manufacturing, mining and quarrying sectors", is around 54.9 per cent (2022: 48.2 per cent).
The Load in the electricity grid totalled 457 TWh, around 26 TWh less than in 2022. Due to the high electricity prices and higher temperatures, electricity was probably saved significantly. The increase in self-consumption of solar power is also reducing the load. The load includes the electricity consumption and grid losses, but not the pumped-storage power consumption and the self-consumption of conventional power plants.
Sharp decline in coal-fired power
After German coal-fired power plants ramped up their production in 2022 - due to the outage of French nuclear power plants, but also due to the distortions in the electricity market caused by the war in Ukraine - their share fell significantly in 2023. As a result, generation in November 2023 was 27 per cent below the same month in the previous year due to the drop in coal-fired electricity exports, but also because of the good wind conditions.
Overall, production from Lignite for public electricity consumption fell by around 27 per cent, from 105.9 to 77.5 TWh. This is in addition to 3.7 TWh for industrial own consumption. Gross electricity generation fell to the level of 1963.
Net production from Hard coal-fired power plants for public electricity consumption was 36.1 TWh (-35 per cent) and 0.7 TWh for industrial own consumption. It was 21.4 TWh lower than in 2022. Gross electricity generation fell to the level of 1955. Natural gas for electricity generation remained slightly below the previous year's level at 45.8 TWh for public electricity supply and 29.6 for industrial own consumption. Due to the shutdown of the last three nuclear power plants in Emsland, Neckarwestheim and Isar on 15 April 2023, the Nuclear power only contributed 6.72 TWh to electricity generation, which corresponds to a share of 1.5 per cent.
Battery storage systems are developing rapidly
The expansion of fluctuating renewable energies also increases the need for grid expansion and storage capacity. Battery storage systems, which are installed on a decentralised basis to buffer the generation of wind and solar power, are particularly suitable. The private household segment is showing strong growth, as is the case with photovoltaic systems. Overall, installed battery capacity almost doubled from 4.4 GW in 2022 to 7.6 GW in 2023, while storage capacity rose from 6.5 GWh to 11.2 GWh. The capacity of German pumped storage plants is around 6 GW.
Declining exports and exchange electricity prices
After an export surplus of 27.1 TWh was achieved in electricity trading in 2022, an import surplus of 11.7 TWh was recorded in 2023. This was due in particular to the lower electricity generation costs in neighbouring European countries in the summer and the high costs of CO2-certificates. The majority of imports came from Denmark (10.7 TWh), Norway (4.6 TWh) and Sweden (2.9 TWh). Germany exported electricity to Austria (5.8 TWh) and Luxembourg (3.6 TWh).
In winter, electricity exchange prices rose again and CO2-certificates became more favourable. This already led to a balance in November and, in conjunction with high wind power generation, to export surpluses in December. In contrast to its neighbouring countries (Austria, Switzerland, France), Germany also has sufficient power plant capacity in winter to produce electricity for export.
The average volume-weighted day-ahead price Exchange electricity price fell sharply to €92.29/MWh or 9.23 cents/kWh (2022: €230.57/MWh). This puts it back at the 2021 level.
A detailed presentation of the data on electricity generation, imports/exports, prices, installed capacity, emissions and climate data can be found on the Energy Charts Server: www.energy-charts.info/downloads/Stromerzeugung_2023.pdf
This first version of the annual evaluation takes into account all electricity generation data from the Leipzig electricity exchange EEX and the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) up to and including 31 December 2023. The quarter-hourly values from the EEX were energetically corrected using the available monthly data from the Federal Statistical Office on electricity generation up to September 2023. For the remaining months, the correction factors were estimated on the basis of past monthly and annual data. The extrapolated values from October to December are subject to larger tolerances.
This is based on the data for the German Net electricity generation to the public electricity supply. It is the difference between gross electricity generation and the power plants' own consumption and is fed into the public grid. The electricity industry calculates with net figures, e.g. for electricity trading and grid utilisation, and only net electricity generation is traded on the electricity exchanges. It represents the electricity mix that actually comes out of the socket at home.
In the run-up to the UN World Human Settlements Summit Habitat III, the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) points to the major challenges posed by increasing urbanisation. In its report "The Relocation of Humanity: The Transformative Power of Cities", the WBGU emphasises that a brief window of opportunity will open up in the coming decades of urbanisation "to set the course towards sustainability" - see Printed matter 18/9590. In this context, the Council recommends shortening the Habitat conference cycle from 20 to four years. The upcoming Habitat conference will take place from 17 to 20 October in Ecuador. The topic of "urbanisation and transformation" should also become a permanent item on the G20 agenda.
"The report is impressive in view of its wealth of arguments and diverse examples of urbanisation phenomena and the description of their effects. The Association of German Cities feels - not least due to its contributions to the success of the HABITAT III conference in Quito in October 2016 - in complete agreement with the report regarding the central role of cities in mastering the upcoming transformation challenges and utilising their opportunities. The challenges to urban transformation are clearly expressed: the call for a sustainable, globally coded urban development policy is a mandate to the global community and national policies to make cities capable of taking action and to urban societies to utilise this capacity for the benefit of the urban population."
Lord Mayor Dr Eva Lohse President of the Association of German Cities
In its report, the WBGU presents a transformation strategy for the sustainable and "people-oriented design" of urbanisation. Cities play a particularly key role in this, as "the relocation of humanity could become the most powerful process of social change in the 21st century".
The force of the current urbanisation dynamic and its effects are so great that cities, urban societies, governments and international organisations worldwide must face up to this trend. A "business as usual" approach would lead to an unsustainable global urban society if urbanisation policy is not shaped. Only if cities and urban societies become sufficiently capable of acting can they realise their potential for sustainable development: It is in the cities that it will be decided whether the Great Transformation towards sustainability will succeed. This book discusses the conditions for success.
The report identifies five transformative, interlinked fields of action:
Decarbonisation, energy and climate protection,
Mobility and transport,
the structural and spatial design of cities,
Adaptation to climate change and
Poverty reduction and socio-economic disparities.
With regard to climate protection, for example, fossil CO₂ emission sources must be replaced by 2070, writes the WBGU. There would also have to be a "move away from a large part of the current infrastructure patterns" in order to reduce the temperature increase to significantly less than two degrees Celsius.
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