The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE just presented the data on the net electricity generation for the public power supply for the first half of 2021 from the Energy Charts data platform. At 47.9 percent, the share of renewables in the electricity mix coming out of the socket was much lower than in the first half of 2020 (55.8 percent). In the first six months of 2021, solar and wind fed a total of 87.3 terawatt hours (TWh) into the public grid, compared with 102.9 TWh within the same time period in 2020. This was mostly due to the large drop in wind power, which declined by 20.5 percent compared to 2020. In contrast, the share of net electricity generation in the public power supply from brown coal (+37.6 percent), hard coal (+38.9 percent), gas (+18.6 percent), hydropower (+15.9) and nuclear power (+7.1 percent) all increased.
Electricity Generation and Demand Approach Pre-Corona Levels
After electricity generation and consumption declined in the first half of 2020 due to decreased industrial production during the COVID-19 pandemic, they reached their pre-corona levels again in 2021. In the first half year of 2021, electricity consumption amounted to 248.5 TWh (first half of 2019: 245.7 TWh) after it fell to 234.2 TWh in 2020 due to corona. The electricity production in 2021 also increased compared to the first half of 2020 from 242.7 TWh to 252.0 TWh. Production remained, however, below the 2019 level (264.5 TWh). Electricity exports rose slightly from 7.5 to 9.1 TWh, with the key export countries being Austria, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
Less Electricity Generation from Wind
In the first half of 2021, photovoltaic systems fed approx. 28.31 TWh into the public grid, a slight increase from the previous year (27.9 TWh), thus contributing a share of 11.2 percent to the public net electricity generation. Wind power’s share fell drastically by 20.5 percent (or 15.2 TWh) down to 58.98 TWh because of the unfavorable weather conditions. In spite of this, wind remained the most important renewable energy source. While above-average wind levels were evidenced in 2019 and 2020, wind in 2021 has been below average up to now.
Hydroelectric production in the first half of 2021 was approximately 11,10 TWh, an increase of 15.9 percent compared to the prior-year period (9.5 TWh.) Approximately 22.4 TWh were produced from biomass, a slight decrease of 5.3 percent compared to the previous year level.
In the first half of 2021, the sum of renewable electricity production from solar, wind, hydro and biomass fell sharply to a total of approx. 120.8 TWh compared to 136.1 TWh in 2020. Thus, the share of renewables in the net public electricity generation, i.e. the electricity mix that actually comes out of the socket, was approx. 47.9 percent for the first half of 2021 and thus much lower than for the same period in 2020 (55.8 percent).
