Germany: Record Year for Offshore Wind and Gas

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Offshore wind and gas-fired power experienced strong growth in Germany this year as electricity from nuclear and coal-fired power plants continued to decline.

For the year, offshore wind power rose by 57% to roughly 1.3 terawatt hours (TWh), compared to 0.83 TWh in 2015. At the same time, gas-fired power experienced strong year-on-year growth of 16.5 TWh to command a 12% share in power generation. The comeback comes at a time when gas-fired plants have been closed in favour of cheaper coal-fired facilities as Germany has experienced weak power demand in recent years. Last year, E.ON was forced to close two modern gas-fired plants in Irsching, claiming they were too expensive to run. For additional information, see April 2, 2015, article--E.ON Shutting 'Unprofitable' German Gas-Fired Plants.

"Lower production of coal and nuclear power was mainly offset by additional electricity production from gas power plants, which clearly shows that natural gas is an indispensable part of the future energy system," said Stefan Kapferer, Chief Executive Officer of the BDEW. "Natural gas once again proves its important role as an energy-generating vehicle."

Figures from the Federal Association of the Energy and Water Industry (BDEW), showed that there was 12.2 TWh of power produced by brown-coal and coal-fired plants, reducing its share in the mix to 40%. In the case of nuclearenergy, the decline was 6.9 TWh, leaving its share at 13%.

The figures reflect the rapidly changing nature of German power politics, in which nuclear power is being phased out quickly and environmental legislation is forcing the closure of more coal-fired plants.

For 2016, renewable energy supplied 32% of Germany's electricity, slightly up on 2015's 31.5%. Germany has a target of raising the share of renewables in gross electricity consumption to 35% by 2020. Offshore wind grew fastest, but there was a 6% drop in onshore wind production to 6.7 TWh, which was blamed on poor wind conditions. Onshore wind supplies most of Germany's renewable power at 35%, followed by solar photovoltaics (PV) with 20%.

Kapferer said: "The continuous increase in the renewable energy share is positive and brings us closer to the goal of a low-carbon energy mix, but we still need conventional production capacities to ensure the ongoing conversion of our energy supply. Grid expansion is clearly lagging behind the necessary targets. To reduce the immense costs for the stabilisation of the networks, grid expansion and renewables expansion have to be more closely interlinked."

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