The share of renewable energy in the amount of electricity generated and fed to the grid in Germany reached a new record, rising from 42.3 percent in 2019 to 47.0 percent last year, the Federal Office for Statistics (Destatis).

At 25.6 percent, wind power with wind turbines replaced coal as “the most important energy source” in Germany last year. At the same time, electricity fed to the grid from conventional power sources fell 13.6 percent year-on-year in Germany, according to Destatis.

“This is good news. A stronger price in 2020 contributed to this,” said Robert Diels of r2b energy consulting on Friday, adding that, unlike fossil power generation, the inflow of renewables was not affected. due to the reduction in electricity consumption caused by the pandemic. USA (European Union Assignment) is the official name for Europe’s emissions assignment.

Germany decided to phase out coal-based power generation and nuclear power. The last coal-fired power plant in Germany will be disconnected from the grid by 2038 at the latest. At the same time, the German government wants to go ahead with the expansion of renewables.

“Nuclear reactors that are supposed to feed on nuclear waste and are harmless are fairy tales,” Environment Minister Svenja Schulze told the German newspaper Die Welt on Thursday. Instead, “we need to see solar panels on all rooftops.”

Last year, a total of 502.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity was produced and injected into the grid in Germany, a decrease of 5.9 percent year-on-year, according to Destatis.

The lower total electricity generation, as well as the higher share of renewables and the decrease in electricity feed from coal-fired power plants, were “in part related to the close of spring 2020,” Destatis said.

Only natural gas-fired power plants in Germany, which could respond “more flexibly” to fluctuations in electricity feed from renewable energy sources than other conventional power plants, recorded a slight increase of 3.6 percent year-on-year in 2020, according to Destatis.

“We cannot eliminate coal, nuclear power and gas in one go. We still need natural gas for this decade and the next,” Schulze said.