Solar and wind energy production accounted for as much as 60% of Germany’s electricity use on October 3rd, according to a new study from energy consultant Bernard Chabot.
At peak production — right around 12pm that day — wind energy and solar energy were producing about 59.1% of the northern country’s power.
German electricity production 1-3 October.
Image Credit: BCCONSULT
Part of the reason for the relatively large percentage was down to especially sunny and windy conditions, according to the research. While renewables certainly did produce a large percentage of the electricity used by the country that day, they, of course, were still eclipsed by the total production of non-renewable energy produced that day. For the day as a whole, “only” 36.4% of the electricity production was via solar energy and wind energy.
PV Tech notes: “The contribution was large enough to reduce the European electricity price index (ELIX) during the day with power at 1400 as cheap as it was at 0600.”
This is clearly a very notable contribution, and one which will no doubt continue to grow in the coming years. Though, it probably will not grow as fast as it has during the last couple of years, thanks to the stair-step lowering over the past couple of years of Germany’s FiT program.
On a related note — it was just a few months ago, in August, that Germany last broke its monthly solar energy generation record, producing about 6.5 times more energy via solar than the US has during its best month. That’s in spite of the fact that the US is a far sunnier country than Germany is. :/
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