85% of Germany’s power came from renewables last weekend

Renewable energy sources – including wind and solar – provided the majority of Germany’s power over the weekend, generating more than 85 per cent of electricity on Sunday. 

The Agora Energiewende initiative announced on Tuesday 2 May that renewable energy sources dominated Germany’s power mix last weekend.

Renewable energy sources – including solar and wind in addition to biomass and hydropower – peaked at 55.2 gigawatts (GW) on Sunday 30 April, thanks to a period of prolonged sunshine and high winds.

Germany has committed to source at least 80 per cent of its power from renewables by 2050, with intermediate targets set at 35-40 per cent by 2025 and 55-60 per cent by 2035.

On Sunday, the majority of the country’s coal-fired power stations were not in operation.

The few that were online were only operational for an hour between 3pm and 4pm, and generated less than 8 GW – well below the maximum output of 50 GW.

Patrick Graichen, Executive Director of Agora Energiewende told RenewEconomy: "Most of Germany's coal-fired power stations were not even operating on Sunday, April 30th…Nuclear power sources, which are planned to be completely phased out by 2022, were also severely reduced."

Germany is planning to decommission all of its nuclear power plants by 2022, following the disaster at the Fukushima power plant in Japan in 2011.

Patrick Graichen stated days like April 30 would be "completely normal" by 2030.

Just over a week before, the UK did not use coal to generate electricity for a full day on Friday 21 April – the first time since the Industrial Revolution.

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