German energy balance for 2024: record proportion of renewable energies

Freiburg (d.de) - Germany’s public net electricity generation reached a historic milestone in 2024: with renewable energies accounting for 62.7 percent, the electricity mix has never been greener. Solar power achieved a new record at 72.2 terawatt hours (TWh), while the expansion of photovoltaics once again exceeded the German government’s targets. This is shown by an analysis conducted by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. 

Supplying 136.4 TWh and accounting for 33 percent, wind power remained the most important energy source, though it was slightly down on 2023. 

Coal-fired electricity generation continued to decline: lignite dropped by 8.4 percent to 71.1 TWh, while hard coal fell by 27.6 percent to 24.2 TWh. Furthermore, 2024 was the first year since 1962 to see no electricity produced by nuclear power. Germany’s last nuclear power plants were shut down in 2023. In their last year, nuclear power had accounted for 6.3 percent of electricity generation. This has been replaced by the expansion of renewable energies.  

Thanks to the reduction in fossil energies and the expansion of renewable energies, electricity generation in Germany produced lower carbon emissions than ever before in 2024. Emissions from German electricity production have fallen by half since 2014 and have dropped by 58 percent since records began in 1990.