Renewable energy in Germany comes mainly from wind power, solar power and biomass and is a central component of the country's Energiewende. In 2025, renewable sources accounted for 23.8% of Germany's gross final energy consumption. Their share was highest in the electricity sector, where renewables supplied 55.1% of gross electricity consumption. Wind power accounted for about 25.4%, solar photovoltaics for 17.4%, biomass for about 9.1%, and hydroelectricity for 3.2%. Renewable shares were lower in heating, at 19.0%, and in transport, at 8.0%. Germany was an early leader in the deployment of renewable energy. In 2009, it was described as "the world's first major renewable energy economy". Germany remained the country with the world's largest installed photovoltaic capacity through 2014.
The Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) has been a major driver of the expansion of renewable electricity in Germany. It sets a target for renewables to account for at least 80% of gross electricity consumption by 2030. The growth of renewable generation has also required substantial expansion of the electricity grid, including major north–south transmission corridors.
Targets
Since the passage of the Directive on Electricity Production from Renewable Energy Sources in 1997, Germany and the other states of the European Union were working towards a target of 12% renewable electricity by 2010. Germany passed this target early in 2007, when the renewable energy share in electricity consumption in Germany reached 14%. In September 2010, the German government announced ambitious energy targets: After the 2013 elections, the new CDU/CSU and SPD coalition government continued the energy transition, with only minor modifications of its targets in the coalition agreement. These targets include, for renewable energy:
The German Government reported, in 2011, renewable energy (mainly wind turbines and biomass plants) generated more than 123 TWh of electricity, providing nearly 20% of the 603 TWh of electricity supplied. By 2012, all renewable energy accounted for 21.9% of electricity, with wind turbines and photovoltaic providing 11.9% of the total. As of 2017, renewable sources account for 38% of the net electricity production. Compared to the same period of 2016, energy production from renewable energy sources increased from 182 TWh to 210 TWh. It marks the first year where solar and wind are the biggest source of energy. Power production from nuclear power plants decreased by 10%, due to maintenance. Use of hard coal decreased by 16%, while production from lignite stayed on a similar level and increased for gas by 2.6 TWh. The renewable installations have come under criticism as well. A balance made in 2017 has shown that whilst emissions in 2016 were 28 percent lower than 1990, the country was likely to fall short of its 2020 target of a 40 percent reduction on 1990 emission levels. The 40 percent reduction target of 2020 will not be met unless "spectacular" additional efforts are made. One significant reason why Germany may miss its 2020 target is because the country's electricity exports have been growing strongly in recent years to surpass France as Europe's largest electricity exporter. A recent study calculates that Germany exports the equivalent of the annual output from 7GW of lignite generation – producing 59 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in the process, a figure which accounts for around half of the shortfall in CO2 emissions it needs to meet its 2020 targets. Replacing the baseload power from fossil fuels has proven more challenging after nuclear power plants have been shut down although the proportion of electricity generated by coal for domestic use has been falling year on year. In July 2019, figures published by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) report that renewable energy is for the first time providing more electricity than coal and nuclear power combined in Germany. Solar, wind, biomass and hydroelectric power generates nearly half of the country's output. Times with negative prices increased as solar and wind power increased. Solar and wind power has low marginal cost, and other production sources with higher fuel costs become less competitive when demand and prices are low. During the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, solar power in Germany occasionally produced 32 gigawatt (GW). Solar, together with wind and other renewables, accounted for 78% of German power at one point.
Primary energy consumption
As of 2015, Germany's total primary energy consumption is 13,218 petajoules or 3,672 terawatt-hours. The final renewable energy consumption, split by the sectors, and with their relative share, are:
Electricity sector, with a renewable energy consumption of 31.5% (187.364 GWh) Heating sector, with a renewable energy consumption of 13.3% (158.662 GWh) Transportation sector, with a renewable energy consumption of 5.3% (33.611 GWh) As of the end of 2015, renewable energy sources, such as biomass, biogas, biofuels, hydro, wind and solar, accounted for 12.4% of the country's primary energy consumption, a more than doubling compared to 2004, when renewables only contributed 4.5%. Although the terms "energy" and "electricity" are often used interchangeably, they should not be confused with one another, as electricity is only one form of energy and does not account for the energy consumed by combustion engines and heat boilers, used in transportation by vehicles and for the heating of buildings.
Sources
Wind power
In 2024, wind power generated a total of 136.4 TWh of electricity and was the largest contributor to Germany's electricity generation. In 2011, the country's installed capacity of wind power was 29 Gigawatts, which was more than doubled in 2024 with 72.7 GW installed. Britain has the best potential wind resources in Europe; Germany has far less. Nevertheless in the late 20th century Germany built the largest wind power capacity worldwide. Volkmar Lauber explains this in terms of seven advantages inside Germany:
A stronger national commitment to renewable energy; Superior national governance emphasizing effectiveness; Deployment of innovations efficiency and cheaply; Administrative efficiency and simplicity; Rapid buildup of a domestic equipment industry; Emergence of new entrepreneurs more committed to renewable energy than the old established electric companies; Outpouring of acceptance and support throughout German society and politics.
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