{"id":276404,"date":"2023-08-30T20:35:56","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T18:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=276404"},"modified":"2023-08-30T20:35:59","modified_gmt":"2023-08-30T18:35:59","slug":"congratulations-to-germany-on-achieving-more-than-50-of-its-electricity-production-from-renewables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=276404","title":{"rendered":"Congratulations To Germany On Achieving More Than 50% Of Its Electricity Production From “Renewables”!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From MANHATTAN CONTRARIAN<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Francis Menton<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On the march to Net Zero carbon emissions from usage of energy, the key first step is to eliminate fossil fuels from the generation of electricity, replacing them with the magical \u201crenewables.\u201d Or so we are told. Once electricity generation is fossil fuel-free, then all energy use can be switched to electricity, without any of the evil emissions. Voil\u00e0 \u2014 Net Zero!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But somehow, in the places that have tried to go this route with wind turbines and solar panels, the push to get more electricity generation from \u201crenewables\u201d has seemed to stall out at around 40 – 45%. (Some small countries with lots of hydropower get higher percentages by counting the hydropower as \u201crenewable.\u201d). Countries may build more and more solar panels and wind turbines, but somewhere in the 40s the percentage that those things contribute to electricity generation just doesn\u2019t seem to budge very much any more<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s why it\u2019s so exciting that in the first half of 2023 Germany finally crashed through the 50% barrier, becoming the first significant country with little hydropower to achieve more than half of its electricity generation from \u201crenewables.\u201d With a simple internet search, you can find large numbers of news sources relaying the great news. For a few examples, here are Reuters, June 27 (\u201cRenewable share of German power use climbs to 52.3% in first half\u201d<\/em><\/a>);<\/em> <\/em><\/strong>Fraunhofer, July 3 (\u201cGerman Net Power Generation in First Half of 2023: Record Renewable Energy Share of 57.7 Percent\u201d<\/em><\/a>); <\/em>Clean Energy Wire, June 27 (\u201cRenewables covered more than half of German electricity consumption in first half of 2023\u201d<\/em><\/a>)<\/em>; <\/em><\/strong>and Solar Quarter, July 5 (\u201cGermany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share in Net Power Generation for First Half of 2023\u201d<\/em><\/a>). <\/em>Why the exact percentages vary a little from article to article, I cannot explain; but they are all at least a little in excess of the key 50% figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So this is surely Germany continuing to lead the way to the green energy transition. Certainly, Germany has only accelerated its pursuit of the idea that the route to Net Zero is the building of more and yet more solar panels and wind turbines. A site called Renewable-Energy-Industry.com compiles data on additions to Germany\u2019s wind and solar generation capacity just in the first half of 2023: \u201cRecord Additions in Germany: 8,000 MW of New Wind And Solar Capacity in The First Half of 2023.\u201d<\/em><\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[S]olar energy in particular is booming in Germany. From January to June 2023 alone, around 465,000 new solar plants with 6,500 MW capacity . . . went into operation and produce electricity, more than ever before in a six-month period. . . . In the first six months of 2023, just under 350 new wind turbines with a capacity of around 1,750 MW went into operation. . . .<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The addition of 8000 MW of generation capacity in just six months is a huge increment in a country where peak electricity usage is less than 85,000 MW<\/a> (or 85 GW).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So are these large additions to capacity what has succeeded in pushing Germany over the 50% threshold? Unfortunately, if you read deep into the Reuters piece linked above, you will start to get a very different understanding. It turns out that Germany\u2019s percentage of electricity from renewables increased not because the production of electricity from renewables increased, but rather because Germany\u2019s economy is shrinking. After decades of effort and hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies and greatly increased consumer electricity prices, the contribution of wind and solar energy in Germany\u2019s economy remains almost insignificant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite all its new solar and wind facilities, Germany\u2019s production of electricity from those sources has lately been going down rather than up. Here is the story for the first half of 2023) (from the Reuters piece linked above:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Renewables, at 137.5 TWh, represented 51.7% of total output, up from 46.4% in first half 2022, <\/em>even as green power production volumes decreased by 0.6%.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 137.5 TWh of electricity that Germany\u2019s \u201crenewable\u201d facilities produced in the first half of 2023 is a pitiful percentage of their supposed theoretical capacity. A chart at Clean Energy Wire here<\/a> gives Germany\u2019s generation capacity of solar, plus onshore and offshore wind as 130.8 GW as of 2022. (In a country with only about 85 GW of peak usage!). Add the new 8 GW of capacity added in the first half of 2023, and you would have 138.8 GW of wind and solar capacity, or 602.9 TWh hours of capacity (138.8 x 24 x 181) for the 181 days in January to June 2023. That would mean that the wind and solar facilities combined produced at a rate of only 22.8% of capacity over that period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if production of electricity from \u201crenewables\u201d actually decreased<\/em>, how could the percentage<\/em> of electricity production from the \u201crenewables\u201d have increased<\/em> from 46.4% to 51.7% of the total? Easy \u2014 the production from all other sources (fossil fuels and nuclear) went down dramatically:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conventional energy sources – nuclear, coal, natural gas and oil – provided 128.4 TWh of output, down from 160.0 TWh a year earlier.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They ran the conventional generators less because the demand for electricity was not there:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fall in conventional production reflected the phase-out of nuclear energy by mid-April and <\/em>operators cutting output to match weak demand<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The change from 160.0 TWh to 128.4 TWh from conventional sources would be a 19.75% decline. That\u2019s rather enormous in one year. Now, how could it be that Germany is experiencing that kind of a huge decline in the demand for electricity? You might check out the big front page article from today\u2019s Wall Street Journal, \u201cGermany\u2019s Shrinking Economy Sparks a Struggle for Solutions.\u201d<\/a> (different headline online). The world leader in the supposed \u201cgreen energy transition\u201d turns out also to be in the unique position of having an economy that is shrinking, and not by a little:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Germany will be the world\u2019s only major economy to contract in 2023, with even sanctioned Russia experiencing growth, according to the International Monetary Fund.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WSJ piece goes into a variety of factors that may be contributing to the shrinking economy. But self-inflicted high energy prices turn up again and again:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Energy costs are posing an existential challenge to sectors such as chemicals. . . . Energy prices in Europe have declined from last year\u2019s peak as EU countries scrambled to replace Russian gas, but German industry still faces higher costs than competitors in the U.S. and Asia.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And meanwhile, with Germany\u2019s massive investments in wind and solar electricity generation, are those sources actually making any major inroads in the overall market for primary energy in the country? Here is an extremely revealing chart, again from Clean Energy Wire<\/a>, with data from 2022:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the \u201crenewables\u201d category for all primary energy (not just electricity), we learn that they include \u201cbiomass\u201d as a \u201crenewable.\u201d Probably, that\u2019s mostly wood, used for heating homes, and hardly a zero carbon source. The amount of energy produced from the \u201cbiomass,\u201d at 1,040 PJ and 8.8% of primary energy, far exceeds the combined total from wind and solar (713 PJ and 6.0% of primary energy).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole \u201cmore than 50% from renewables\u201d mantra turns out only to apply to electricity (far less than half of primary energy usage). And rather than representing the advance of the mythical wind and solar, the whole thing is just an artifact of a shrinking economy, largely itself caused by the destructive build-out of the wind and solar facilities. They are destroying their economy, and have almost nothing to show for two decades and hundreds of billions of dollars invested in the useless wind and solar farms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the march to Net Zero carbon emissions from usage of energy, the key first step is to eliminate fossil fuels from the generation of electricity, replacing them with the magical \u201crenewables.\u201d Or so we are told. Once electricity generation is fossil fuel-free, then all energy use can be switched to electricity, without any of the evil emissions. Voil\u00e0 \u2014 Net Zero!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":276414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691822198,691818154,691818130,691822124],"class_list":{"0":"post-276404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-fossil-fuel-free","9":"tag-net-zero","10":"tag-renewables","11":"tag-wind-and-solar-farms","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0The-environmental-impacts-of-solar-and-wind-energy-1.jpg?fit=1592%2C1137&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-19U8","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":264888,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=264888","url_meta":{"origin":276404,"position":0},"title":"World Now Wasting $1 Trillion Or More Per Year Investing In Useless “Renewables”","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/01\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"More than USD\u00a01.7\u00a0trillion is going to clean energy, including renewable power, nuclear, grids, storage, low-emission fuels, efficiency improvements and end-use renewables and electrification.","rel":"","context":"In \"1 Trillion\"","block_context":{"text":"1 Trillion","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=1-trillion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0-throw-away-money.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0-throw-away-money.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0-throw-away-money.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0-throw-away-money.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0-throw-away-money.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":413345,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=413345","url_meta":{"origin":276404,"position":1},"title":"BBC Wishful Thinking","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/15\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The world\u2019s burning of fossil fuels is set to release more planet-warming carbon dioxide than ever before this year, new figures show.","rel":"","context":"In \"BBC\"","block_context":{"text":"BBC","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=bbc"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/556631961_1370772704407729_1695678834169652883_n.jpg?fit=1200%2C1078&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/556631961_1370772704407729_1695678834169652883_n.jpg?fit=1200%2C1078&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/556631961_1370772704407729_1695678834169652883_n.jpg?fit=1200%2C1078&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/556631961_1370772704407729_1695678834169652883_n.jpg?fit=1200%2C1078&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/556631961_1370772704407729_1695678834169652883_n.jpg?fit=1200%2C1078&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":265379,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=265379","url_meta":{"origin":276404,"position":2},"title":"WHEN THE FACTS COLLIDE WITH CLIMATE ALARM","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/04\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The data illustrates that almost all the key assertions of climate campaigners about present trends in global energy supply, demand and emissions are flawed. Most importantly, the \u201cworld\u201d is not decarbonizing and is not undergoing either a rapid \u201ctransition\u201d towards full electrification or replacement of fossil fuels by renewable energy.","rel":"","context":"In \"Electric Vehicles\"","block_context":{"text":"Electric Vehicles","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=electric-vehicles"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0-Perception-vs-Reality.png?fit=1024%2C990&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0-Perception-vs-Reality.png?fit=1024%2C990&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0-Perception-vs-Reality.png?fit=1024%2C990&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0-Perception-vs-Reality.png?fit=1024%2C990&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":240709,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=240709","url_meta":{"origin":276404,"position":3},"title":"Rapid technological innovation \u2013 not harmful renewables policy \u2013 key to lighting our energy future","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/20\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Australia\u2019s rapid transition of electric power systems away from fossil fuels is introducing substantial new risks to their electric power systems.\u00a0 A transition of the electric power system that produces less reliable and more expensive electricity acts as a tourniquet that restricts the lifeblood of modern society.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-889.png?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-889.png?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-889.png?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-889.png?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-889.png?fit=1200%2C798&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":427946,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=427946","url_meta":{"origin":276404,"position":4},"title":"Cuba Hits Net Zero First\u2014And the Lights Go Out. Victory?","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/25\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Widespread blackouts, humanitarian challenges, and reliance on emergency measures like increased solar panel installations (with Chinese assistance adding ~1,000 MW of solar recently). Intensified US sanctions and executive actions (under the Trump administration) blocking oil shipments from countries like Venezuela and Mexico. Resulting near-collapse of oil imports (e.g., reports of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Cuba\"","block_context":{"text":"Cuba","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=cuba"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0-Cuba-1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0-Cuba-1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0-Cuba-1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0-Cuba-1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":268354,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=268354","url_meta":{"origin":276404,"position":5},"title":"True, Spiked, A Rapid Energy Transition Will Increase Human Suffering","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/19\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0spiked\u00a0article, titled \u201cThe human cost of Net Zero,\u201d written by Ralph Schoellhammer, quickly points out that despite decades of climate alarmism and a push to abandon fossil fuels, the proportion of fossil energy to other sources has not changed much.","rel":"","context":"In \"Energy Transition\"","block_context":{"text":"Energy Transition","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=energy-transition"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0shutterstock_260344292-e1563066378321.webp?fit=1200%2C907&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0shutterstock_260344292-e1563066378321.webp?fit=1200%2C907&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0shutterstock_260344292-e1563066378321.webp?fit=1200%2C907&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0shutterstock_260344292-e1563066378321.webp?fit=1200%2C907&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0shutterstock_260344292-e1563066378321.webp?fit=1200%2C907&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=276404"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276418,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276404\/revisions\/276418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/276414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=276404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=276404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=276404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}