Coal remains the most important energy source

Wiesbaden (energate) - The majority of electricity generated in Germany in the first quarter of 2022 again came from conventional energy sources. This was reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). However, according to preliminary results, electricity generation from conventional energy sources fell by eight per cent compared to the 1st quarter of 2021 and accounted for a share of 52.9 per cent of total electricity generation. In Q1 2021, the share of electricity generation from conventional energy had been 59.6 per cent, but in Q1 2020 it was only 48.6 per cent. At the time, the majority of electricity fed into the grid was generated from renewable energies for the first time in a quarter. Overall, 3.7 per cent more electricity was fed into the grid in Germany in Q1 2022 than in Q1 2021.

According to the statisticians, coal was also the most important energy source for electricity generation in the 1st quarter of 2022. The feed-in of coal-fired electricity increased by 12.5 per cent compared to the 1st quarter of 2021 to a share of 31.5 per cent in the amount of electricity fed into the grid. In the 1st quarter of 2021, the share had been 29 per cent. In contrast, electricity generation from natural gas fell by 17 per cent compared to the same quarter of the previous year to a share of 12.6 per cent of the electricity fed into the grid (Q1 2021: 15.2%). Electricity generation from nuclear energy fell by 49 per cent to a share of six per cent of the electricity fed into the grid in Q1 2022 compared to Q1 2021 (Q1 2021: 12.1%).
 

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Electricity generation from renewable energies increased significantly by 21 per cent compared to the 1st quarter of 2021. In this context, electricity feed-in from wind power increased by 28.8 per cent and accounted for a share of 30.1 per cent of the amount of electricity fed into the grid (1st quarter 2021: 24.2%). Feed-in from photovoltaics increased by 34.7 per cent to a share of 6.3 per cent (1st quarter 2021: 4.7%). "The big increase in wind power is mainly due to the low-wind 1st quarter of 2021. The big increase in photovoltaics was mainly due to an unusually high number of sunshine hours in Q1 2022, especially in March 2022," according to Destatis. Overall, the share of renewable energies in total electricity feed-in rose from 40.4 per cent in the 1st quarter of 2021 to 47.1 per cent in the 1st quarter of 2022. /df