Germany. 90 per cent of energy consumed comes from renewables
Energy — di Rudi Bressa
It happened last Sunday when, for a few hours, 55 GW of the 58 GW of electricity consumed came from renewable sources.
Germany. 90 per cent of energy consumed comes from renewables
It happened last Sunday when, for a few hours, 55 GW of the 58 GW of electricity consumed came from renewable sources.
The record was registered at 11 o'clock in the morning on Sunday 8 May 2016. At that time, of the 57.78 GW consumed by the grid, 54.83 GW came from renewable sources. Solar, wind, hydroelectric and biomass were supplying more than 90 per cent of the energy demanded by light bulbs, boilers, computers and any other electrically powered system.
This record was undoubtedly achieved thanks to particularly favourable conditions: it was the morning of a public holiday, when energy demand was certainly lower than on other days of the week. It is nonetheless a significant result, one that places Germany at the forefront of renewable energy use.
According to data provided by the German energy transition, in 2015 30 per cent of the 647 TWh of energy produced annually came from renewable sources, 24 per cent from lignite, 18 per cent from coal and 14 per cent from nuclear. This means that the country's energy transition has indeed begun, but that fossil fuels continue to be the largest national source.
If Germany leads the way, Italy ranks among the top for solar
For some time the German country has been leading the race towards renewables — so much so that for years it ranked among the top positions for installed photovoltaic capacity. Today, however, it is Italy that leads in the contribution of solar photovoltaic to energy demand, with 8 per cent, followed by Greece (7.4 per cent) and Germany itself (7.1 per cent). A figure that could potentially grow if the trend of the first quarter of 2016 is confirmed: +33 per cent in newly installed capacity compared with the same period in 2015.
Growth also hoped for following the signing of the Paris Agreement by Prime Minister Renzi, who from New York had spoken of his intention to bring renewables' contribution to the electricity mix to 50 per cent by 2020. "A goal that Italy can achieve," WWF Italia states. "Provided that all the regulations currently acting as a brake on renewables, self-consumption and investment are revised. More broadly, it is finally necessary to produce a medium-term decarbonisation strategy, as also envisaged by the Paris Agreement, and a national energy plan."