Renewable energy accounted for 46.9% of total energy consumption in Germany in 2022, up 4.9 percentage points from the previous year, thanks to favorable weather conditions, Reuters reports.

Both the increased intensity of the sun and the speed of the wind supported the increase in the share of renewable energy. The preliminary data are calculated according to EU requirements, according to a press release from the industrial group BDEW and the Research Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen (ZSW).

In 2021, the share of renewables in Germany’s energy consumption was of 42%.

This year, total energy consumption in Germany fell by 3.1% to 546.5 billion kWh. Domestic electricity production also fell by 1.9%, to 574 billion kWh.

Renewable energy (solar, wind, hydro, biomass and geothermal energy) contributed by 256.2 billion kWh or 44.6% to the total production, according to Agerpres.

Depending on the volume, the production of renewable energy increased this year by 8.1% compared to 2021 and from a share of 40.5% of the total.

The renewable energy category includes, among others, onshore wind energy (99 billion kWh, up 9.3%), photovoltaics (62.3 billion kWh, up 21.2%), biomass (46.8 billion kWh, +2.9%) and offshore wind energy (25 billion kWh, up 2.6%).

Conventional energy production has come from nuclear fuel, coal and natural gas.

Germany’s goal is for energy production from renewable sources to reach 80% of total electricity production by 2030.