Renewable Electricity Generation Capacity in Germany

Overview

The installed capacity of renewable power plants in Germany has increased significantly in recent years. In 2024, renewable energies will account for over two thirds of Germany's total power plant capacity.

At the beginning of the expansion of renewable energies, hydropower was initially in first place: in 1990, of around 4.4 GW (gigawatts, billion watts) of renewable power plant capacity, hydropower plants alone accounted for almost 4 GW. Due to the limited supply, only little capacity was added in the following years. In 2024, the hydropower plants had an output of 5.6 GW.

The nascent expansion of wind power on land replaced hydropower at the top. While wind turbines with an installed capacity of less than 0.1 GW were still installed in 1990, by 2000 they had already surpassed all other renewable energy sources combined with an installed capacity of 6.1 GW. However, the expansion of wind power did not stop there. On the contrary: over the next few years, it reached an average expansion of over 2 GW per year. Today (as at the end of 2024), 62.7 GW of wind power is installed onshore, almost ten times as much as in 2000.

Ten years later, a further change became apparent: The annual expansion of photovoltaics had grown from less than 0.1 GW in 2000 to over 7.4 GW in 2010. Photovoltaics (PV) replaced wind power at the top of the list of installed capacity as early as 2012. This was followed by further years of strong growth, although this came to an abrupt end due to changes in the political framework. While over 8 GW of PV capacity was installed in 2012, the market collapsed to 1.2 GW in 2014. As a result, the installed capacity of wind power overtook that of photovoltaics again in 2014. The year 2021 marked another turnaround: At 59.4 GW, PV now accounted for 43 % of installed capacity, making it the leader again, while onshore wind power was close behind with 40 % of capacity. In 2024, photovoltaic systems already accounted for over half (52 %) of capacity, while the share of wind power fell to a third (34 %).

Another trend shows the technological development of recent decades: wind turbines at sea (offshore) increased from an initial 0.04 GW at the end of 2009 to 1.0 GW in the following five years. By 2018, the expansion level of hydropower had already been reached. Today (end of 2024), over 9.2 GW of capacity is installed at sea.

In addition to wind, hydro and photovoltaic power plants, there are also other renewable energies. In particular, biogas plants should be mentioned here. While 0.67 GW were installed in 2005, the capacity increased tenfold to 6.7 GW in 2022. However, the current expansion rates are only 0.1 GW per year.

For a successful energy transition, which in addition to electricity consumption should also cover the energy requirements in the transport and heating sectors as well as the material requirements of industry, around 590 GW of photovoltaics, 200 GW of onshore wind and 70 GW of offshore wind are required. This means that around four fifths of the energy transition still lies ahead of us.

Output alone is not enough to cover energy requirements: the annual yield per watt of installed output varies depending on the supply of the fluctuating renewable energy source. In addition to the weather, technological progress also plays a role here. If the annual yield is divided by the nominal output, the result is the number of full load hours (FLH). PV systems today have 935 to 1280 full load hours. A PV system with an output of 10 kW (kilowatts, thousand watts) therefore generates around 10,000 kWh per year. Onshore wind turbines generate 1800 to 3200 FLH depending on the location, offshore wind even up to 4500 FLH.

The electricity yields of renewable energies in Germany since 1990 as well as the installed capacity worldwide are presented in a separate article.

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