First version

This report presents the data on German net electricity generation for public electricity supply.

Renewable energy sources: solar and wind

Solar Photovoltaic systems fed approx. 50,7 TWh into the public grid in 2020. Production increased by approx. 4,3 TWh or 9,3% compared to the previouos year.

The installed PV capacity at the end of November was approx. 53,6 GW. The increase in 2019 amounted to approx. 4,4 GW until November. The maximum solar capacity was approx. 37,2 GW on June 1, 2020 at 1 pm. At this time, 56% of the total electricity generation came from photovoltaics. The maximum share of solar energy in the total daily energy of all electricity sources was 32% on May 21. From March to September 2020, the monthly power generation of PV systems was higher than that of coal-fired power plants.

Wind energy produced around 132 TWh in 2020, which is about 4,6% more than in 2019. Wind power was thus the strongest energy source, followed by lignite, nuclear, gas and solar. In ten months, wind power production exceeded generation from lignite, and in all twelve months, wind power was ahead of nuclear power. The maximum capacity generated was approx. 46,9 GW on February 22, 2020 at 08:30 pm. The share of onshore wind was approx.105 TWh. Offshore wind increased production from 24,5 TWh in 2019 to 27 TWh in 2020. Approximately 22,8 TWh were generated in the North Sea. Offshore production in the Baltic Sea was approx.4,2 TWh. At the end of November 2020, the installed capacity of onshore wind was 54,6 GW and of offshore wind 7,74 GW.

Together, solar and wind turbines produced approx. 183 TWh in 2020. For the first time, they are thus ahead of the sum of all fossil sources (lignite, hard coal, oil and gas), which produced 178 TWh.

Renewable energy sources: hydropower and biomass

Hydropower produced only approx. 18,3 TWh compared to 20,6 TWh in 2019. The installed capacity was approx. 4,8 GW and remains unchanged compared to 2019.

About 45.5 TWh were produced from biomass. Production is slightly higher than in 2019, but lower than in 2018.

In total, the renewable energy sources solar, wind, water and biomass produced approx. 246 TWh in 2020. This is 4% above the previous year's level of 236 TWh. The share of public net electricity generation, i.e. the electricity mix that actually comes from the socket, was over 50%.

In addition to public net power generation, total net power generation also includes own generation by industrial and commercial enterprises. This is mainly done with gas.

According to BDEW calculations, the share of renewable energies in total gross electricity generation, including the power plants of "companies in the manufacturing industry and in mining and quarrying", is approx. 44.6%. According to BDEW, the share of renewable energies in gross electricity consumption is 46.3%. See https://www.bdew.de/media/documents/Jahresbericht_2020_20201218.pdf

Non-renewable electricity generation

Net electricity production from nuclear power plants amounted to 60,9 TWh and was thus 14% the previous year's level of 71 TWh. The decline is due to the shutdown of the Philippsburg 2 nuclear power plant.

Lignite-fired power plants produced 82 TWh net. This is approx. 20 TWh or 19,6% less than in 2019. The sharp decline in lignitefired power generation is due to a number of factors: higher CO2 certificate prices, higher power generation from renewables, lower electricity exchange prices, lower gas prices, lower power consumption, and fewer power exports.

Net production from hard coal-fired power plants amounted to 35,6 TWh. It was 13,9 TWh or 28% lower than in 2019, when 49,5 TWh were produced net.

Gas-fired power plants produced 59 TWh net for the public electricity supply. They were thus 6 TWh or 11,7% over the level of the previous year. Reasons for the increase include low gas prices and high CO2 certificate prices. In addition to the power plants for public power supply, there are also gas-fired power plants in the mining and manufacturing sectors for captive power supply. These produced an additional approx. 25 to 30 TWh for industrial captive use, which is not included in this publication.

Export surplus

In 2020 an export surplus (physical flows) of approx.18 TWh was achieved. This is a strong decline compared to 2019, when the export surplus was 34 TWh. The majority of exports went to Poland (11,2 TWh), followed by Austria (8,4 TWh), the Czech Republic (6 TWh) and Switzerland (5 TWh). Germany imported10,3 TWh from France. The physical flows of electricity do not provide information on whether the electricity was actually consumed in the country or whether it was transmitted to neighboring countries.

The picture is different for scheduled electricity trade, with exports to Austria (18.4 TWh), the Czech Republic (3.8 TWh), Luxembourg (3.8 TWh), Poland (2.9 TWh) and France (1.6 TWh). Imports are from Denmark (6.9 TWh), Sweden (2.1 TWh), Netherlands (1.6 TWh) and Switzerland (1.4 TWh).

The 90 km long direct current line ALEGrO connects Belgium with Germany since 25.09.2020 and the direct current line NordLink connects Norway with Germany since 20.10.2020. In electrical terms, this means that Germany now has two new neighboring countries to exchange electricity with.

In terms of foreign trade in electricity, 34.9 TWh were imported up to and including October at a value of 1.5 billion euros. Exports amounted to 45.2 TWh and were worth 2.05 billion euros. The net result for the first ten months was an export surplus of 10.3 TWh and revenues worth 549 million euros. Imported electricity cost an average of 42.87 euros/MWh and exported electricity 45.27 euros/MWh.

Load, spot market prices and market value

The load amounted to 475 TWh. This is about 2% less than in 2019 with 485 TWh.

Load includes power consumption and grid losses, but not pumped-storage power consumption and own consumption by conventional power plants.

The average volume-weighted day-ahead exchange electricity price was €29.52/MWh. This is 19% lower than in 2019, when it was €36.64/MWh.

The trading volume in 2020 was 216 TWh.

The average volume-weighted intraday hourly price was €32.53/MWh, 15.5% lower than in 2019, with a trading volume of 46 TWh.

The market value of wind power was €25.26/MWh, or 83%. Solar power had a market value of €24.38/MWh or 80%.

Appendix and Notes

Version History

The first version of the annual evaluation 2020 of 02.01.2021 takes into account all power generation data of the Leipzig power exchange EEX up to and including 31.12.2020. Via the available monthly data of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on electricity generation up to and including September 2020 and the monthly data on imports and exports of electricity up to and including October 2020, the hourly values of the EEX were corrected energetically. For the remaining months, the correction factors were estimated on the basis of past annual data. The extrapolated values are subject to larger tolerances.

Difference between net and gross power generation

This report presents data on Germany's net electricity generation for public power supply. When net figures are used, a power plant's own consumption is supplied directly from the power plant's gross electricity generation. The difference between gross electricity generation and own consumption is the net electricity generation fed into the grid. According to this convention, a coal mill in a lignite-fired power plant, for example, is supplied directly from the power plant's electricity generation and is thus powered exclusively by lignite-fired electricity.

The entire electricity industry calculates with net figures, e.g. for electricity trading, grid calculation, grid utilization, power plant deployment planning, etc.

On the German power exchange EEX, only net power generation is traded, the transmission system operators calculate with net flows, and only net figures are measured for cross-border power flows.

Net electricity generation represents the electricity mix that actually comes out of the socket at home and is consumed in the household or with which electric vehicles are also publicly charged. The electricity meter in the home also measures the net electricity that is consumed or fed into the grid.

The AG Energiebilanzen uses the data for total gross electricity generation. This also includes the power plants' own consumption, which is consumed directly in the power plant and is not physically fed into the public power grid. On the consumption side, the power plants' own consumption is added to the gross electricity consumption so that the balance is correct again. According to this convention, a coal mill in a lignitefired power plant, for example, is operated with the gross electricity mix and thus with approx. 46% renewable energies.

In addition, the AG Energiebilanzen also takes into account the own electricity generation of industry, the so-called "establishments in the manufacturing sector as well as in mining and quarrying". This own generation is consumed directly in the plants and is also not fed into the public grid. Gross figures are collected for statistical purposes only, but are not used in day-to-day electricity management.

The data on net public electricity generation and total gross electricity generation differ significantly. This also results in significantly different shares of renewable energies in electricity generation or electricity consumption.

1 TWh = 1 terawatt-hour = 1000 gigawatts-hours (GWh) = 1 million megawatt-hours (MWh) = 1 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh)