Germany Burns More Gas as Renewables Falter Ahead of Winter

Germany is generating electricity from gas-fired power plants at the highest rate since 2021, slowing EU-wide efforts to refill gas storage ahead of peak demand season.

Reuters’ Gavin Maguire reports that over the period January to October, Germany generated 41.6 GWh of electricity from gas-fired plants, according to data from LSEG. This amount represented 19% of total electricity production in the period, which is the highest portion of the energy since even further back than 2021. According to climate advocacy outlet Ember, as quoted by Maguire, the last time gas accounted for 19% of Germany’s energy mix was in 2019.

The reason for the hike in gas generation was wind power and, more specifically, subpar wind power generation due to insufficient wind speeds. The trend continues, meaning that Germany would likely need to keep generating more electricity from gas-fired power plants during the winter as well. Winter is typically a low wind output season, not to mention solar, for which the period between October and April is significantly below peak production. This year, hydropower has been trending lower than usual, too, to complicate matters further.

Germany’s power generation from wind and hydro together fell by 7% from last year between January and October, Reuters’ Maguire said. The two together accounted for 34% of the country’s energy mix during the period, according to LSEG data. There was no breakdown for individual output provided in the report. The decline in wind generation comes despite record new capacity additions during the first half of the year.

The European Union’s gas inventories are currently at a little above 83% of capacity, with Germany lagging behind France, Italy, and Belgium, among others, whose inventories are at over 90% of capacity. However, Germany has more capacity to fill, and higher gas generation is slowing this down. To date, Germany’s gas inventories were at 75.24% of capacity, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com