A colder winter boosted Germany’s space heating demand and total primary energy use rose by 2.3% in the first half of 2025 from a year earlier, according to data from energy industry statistics group AG Energiebilanzen (AGEB) published on Tuesday.
For the full-year 2024, energy use in Europe’s biggest economy dropped by 1.1% compared to 2023.
So far this year, the colder winter, the first such cold winter in three years, has been the primary driver of increased energy consumption. Slightly improved macroeconomic data also helped raise energy use, albeit to a lesser extent. Therefore, Germany’s higher energy use was mostly due to freezing temperatures this winter, not to some sort of a rebound in manufacturing and heavy industry.
In addition, reduced wind energy output due to low wind speeds was offset by higher coal and natural gas volumes for power generation, which raised primary energy demand.
Germany’s wind and solar power output slumped to the lowest in ten years at the start of the year, at just 80 TWh over the first four months of 2025, data from climate think tank Ember showed earlier this year.
As a result, Europe’s biggest economy has ramped up gas and coal generation by 10% from a year ago, with the share of hydrocarbons in its energy mix rising to the highest in seven years.
The main reason for the drop in wind and solar generation was low wind speed, which hit total wind power output hard: generation was down 31% on the year in the four-month period for a total of 39 TWh. This was the lowest wind power output in Germany since 2017—despite a 30% surge in wind turbine installations in the years since then.
Per AGEB’s data out today, Germany’s natural gas demand rose by 4.7% in January-June compared to last year, as gas demand for heating surged in February. Gas-fired power demand also increased, by 8%, helping to offset the slump in wind and hydropower, AGEB said.
Coal use in power plants jumped by 23% amid lower wind and hydropower generation. However, coal use in the steel-making industry slumped by nearly 12%, suggesting that the heavy industry in Germany continues to suffer.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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