Are Germany’s Energy Transition Plans Working?
Considering the established political imperatives underpinning the German energy transition(Energiewende) and the overall push toward greater use of renewables in the energy mix, let’s look at some of the outcomes of this transition — specifically natural gas imports from Russia and fossil fuel consumption.
A boost in renewables would carry these two ostensible goals, and it’s worthwhile to gauge progress in both areas.
In these scenarios, it’s beneficial to look at the end-use of primary sources of energy, to understand how Germany is ultimately using its energy. So instead of production data, the focus will be on consumption.
For example, as we’ll cover later, Germany produces a lot of renewable energy, but it doesn’t consume all that energy, and therefore will not have any fundamental impact on the consumption mix.
BP’s statistical workbooks (data used in this article is sourced from BP’s 2017 Statistical Workbook unless otherwise noted) provide good time-series data that can be used to understand Germany’s transition in this context.
The following graph draws on BP’s data and furnishes a good look at energy consumption in Germany, going back to 2000.
(Click to enlarge)
In specific areas, Germany has been successful in meeting its objectives, and this appears to be at least partially due to increases in the production and consumption of renewable sources of primary energy.
Since 2000, renewables consumption in Germany, including biomass, solar, and wind (excluding hydroelectricity) has grown over 1,000 percent. This growth represents a substantial increase, bringing consumption from 3.2 Mtoe (14.3 Twh) in 2000 to 37.9 Mtoe (167.4 Twh) in 2016.
There is still quite a discrepancy, however, between Germany’s production of renewable energy, and its consumption…
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