According to new figures from the renewable energy statistics group AGEE-Stat, Germany’s solar PV installations generated 40.7 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity between January and August 2021, roughly the same amount as they did during the same period the year before when significantly more sunshine hours were recorded. PV systems generated six terawatt hours of power in August, which is the same amount as they will produce in August 2020.
The addition of 2,893 megawatts (MW) of PV capacity in 2021 was a net gain of 5.4 percent when compared to the first seven months of 2020, according to data from the end of July.
The production of solar energy has stayed steady, while the output of wind turbines has decreased significantly:
During the first eight months of 2020, offshore wind systems generated 14.9 TWh (instead of 17.2 TWh in the same period in 2020), while onshore wind systems provided 57.7 TWh (instead of 70.3 TWh in 2020) at the end of August.
This was owing to the fact that there was unusually little wind in the spring. According to AGEE-Stat, onshore wind turbines with a combined capacity of 959 MW were installed in the first six months of the year, representing a more than 60% increase over the same period the previous year (594 MW). This year, no new offshore wind farms have been added to the existing fleet.
According to industry groups, the percentage of renewable energy in Germany’s total electricity consumption fell to 43 percent in the first half of 2021, a substantial decrease from the 50 percent reached in the same time the previous year, according to data released in June. The generation of coal power (27.1% of total energy output) has therefore surpassed wind power (22.1%), which was the single greatest source of electricity during the first half of 2020.