More than a third (36.3 percent) of the electricity generated in Germany and fed into the grid in the third quarter of 2022 came from coal-fired power plants (Q3 2021: 31.9 percent). According to preliminary results from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the feed-in of coal-fired electricity increased by 13.3 percent compared to the third quarter of 2021.
More electricity from natural gas
Despite high gas prices, electricity generation from natural gas also increased: it was 4.5 percent higher than in the same quarter of the previous year and accounted for 9.2 percent of the electricity fed into the grid (Q3 2021: 8.8 percent). For the first time since the second quarter of 2021, more electricity was generated from natural gas than in the same period of the previous year. A total of 118.1 billion kilowatt hours of electricity were fed into the grid in Germany in the third quarter of 2022. That was 0.5 percent less than in the third quarter of 2021.
Power generation fell
Despite the increase in electricity generation from coal and natural gas, the total amount of electricity generated from conventional fuels decreased in the third quarter of 2022. Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, it fell by 3.0 percent to 55.6 percent of the amount of electricity fed into the grid (Q3 2021: 57.0 percent). This was also due to the fact that only half as much nuclear power was generated and fed into the power grid as a year earlier. In the third quarter of 2022, electricity generation from nuclear energy fell by 47.8 percent compared to the third quarter of 2021 to just 7.4 percent of the amount of electricity fed into the grid (third quarter of 2021: 14.1 percent). The reason for the significant decline compared to the previous year is the shutdown of three of the six nuclear power plants that were still in operation at the end of 2021.
3.9 percent more from renewable sources
Electricity generation from renewable energies increased by 2.9 percent in Q3 2022 compared to Q3 2021. The feed-in from wind power increased by 1.0 percent and accounted for 16.8 percent of the amount of electricity fed in (Q3 2021: 16.5 percent). The feed-in from photovoltaics increased by 20.3 percent to a share of 16.0 percent (Q3 2021: 13.3 percent). The strong increase in photovoltaics was mainly due to the unusually high number of hours of sunshine. Overall, the share of renewable energies in electricity generation increased from 43.0 percent in the third quarter of 2021 to 44.4 percent in the third quarter of 2022.
Exports to France still high
The amount of electricity imported into Germany fell by 8.8 percent in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the third quarter of 2021. The decline of -87.9 percent in electricity imports from France was particularly clear. This development can be attributed primarily to technical problems in the French nuclear power plants. As in the first half of 2022, electricity exports from Germany to France exceeded electricity imports from there.
2022 will probably be the first year since statistics began in 1990 in which Germany will be a net exporter of electricity to France. The total volume of electricity exported from Germany increased by 8.9 percent in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the third quarter of 2021. This increased the German export surplus to 3 billion kilowatt hours (Q3 2021: 0.5 billion kilowatt hours). (awm)