At the beginning of the year, wind power was once again the most important source of electricity in Germany after a long break. In the first quarter, renewable energy surpassed coal, which accounted for 32.2 percent, with a total generation share of 30.0 percent. Most recently, wind power was the largest source of energy in the second quarter of 2020, as the Federal Statistical Office reported on Wednesday.
However, conventional energy sources, including coal, gas and nuclear energy, still accounted for more than half of Germany's electricity production at 51.4 percent. Renewable energy sources such as wind, hydropower, photovoltaics and biogas reached 48.6 percent in the first three months of the year
With total electricity generation falling by 7.8 percent to 132.8 billion kilowatt hours, nuclear power declined significantly with a minus of 32.7 percent before the shutdown of the last three German nuclear power plants on April 15.
Electricity production from coal also fell sharply by 12.1 percent compared to the same quarter last year, while wind power weakened by only 0.7 percent.
In a year-on-year comparison, the amount of electricity exported from Germany fell by 9.8 percent to 21.3 billion kilowatt hours. At the same time, imports rose by 15.2 percent to 12.1 billion kilowatt hours.