Renewable energy's share of German power use tops 50% in Q1
FRANKFURT, April 28 (Reuters) - Renewable energy accounted for 50.3% of Germany's power consumption in the first three months of the year, data from utility group BDEW and the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (ZSW) showed on Friday.
Germany wants green power from solar, wind, biomass and hydroelectric generation to account for 80% of its energy mix by 2030, as it abandons nuclear power and aims to cut most of its coal generation, using gas plants mostly for grid back-up.
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The preliminary figures partly reflected lower power consumption in the first three months of 2023 when electricity usage fell 6.4% year-on-year to 138.1 terawatt hours (TWh), BDEW noted in a statement.
Renewables accounted for 49.2% of the mix in the first three months of 2022.
The data was calculated under European Union requirements that base the share on usage rather than production, a method also adopted by the Berlin government for its climate target definitions, BDEW said.
"Because the renewable share is measured by its share in overall usage, lower (electricity) consumption means a higher relative share and vice versa," it added.
Looking at domestic electricity production, the two research bodies recorded a fall of 8.3% to 147.5 TWh in the three-month period, including production volumes directed for export.
Within the output total, renewables, at 69.5 TWh, accounted for a share of 47.1%, up from 45.1% in the first three months of 2022, even as green power production volumes dropped 4.3%.
Conventional energy sources - nuclear, coal, natural gas and oil - provided 78 TWh within the generation total, down from 88.3 TWh a year earlier.
(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Miranda Murray, Kirsten Donovan)