Germany’s exploration and practice in the field of renewable energy power generation provides a valuable example for the global energy transition. 2024, Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute reported that 62.7% of its electricity production came from renewable energy sources, an all-time high, marking the country’s “unprecedented cleanliness” in its power mix.
Among the various types of renewable energy, wind power and photovoltaic power generation is extremely outstanding. Wind power will account for 33% of Germany’s total electricity generation in 2024, making it the most important source of electricity. Germany’s vast plains and long coastline create unique conditions for wind power generation. For example, the [name of specific wind farm] along the North Sea coast has hundreds of giant wind turbines with a single capacity of several megawatts, and its annual power generation can meet the electricity needs of hundreds of thousands of households in the surrounding area.
Installed photovoltaic capacity is also expanding rapidly, with Germany adding 17 gigawatts (GW) in 2024, far exceeding the government’s target of a 13 GW increase, and generating 18% more electricity than in 2023, accounting for 14% of total electricity generation. In cities such as Munich, a large number of building roofs have been installed with high-efficiency solar photovoltaic panels, which not only satisfy their own electricity consumption, but also feed excess power into the grid .
With the development of renewable energies, the use of traditional energy sources in Germany has been significantly reduced. 2024, lignite power generation has been reduced by 8.4%, and hard coal power generation has been reduced by 27.6%. After the closure of the last three nuclear power plants in April 2023, nuclear power production will be reduced to zero in 2024, and its electricity demand will be replaced by renewable energy sources.
Policy support and social promotion
The success of renewable energy in Germany cannot be separated from policy promotion and legal protection.In the 1990s, Germany enacted the Renewable Energy Feed-in Law, laying the foundation for the construction of an environmentally friendly energy system.In 2019, the German Coal Commission announced that it would end the operation of all coal power plants by the end of 2038 at the latest, and then advanced the goal of completely phasing out coal power plants to 2030 in 2021. In May of the same year, the German Federal Cabinet passed an amendment to the Climate Protection Act, making the optimization of the energy mix an important step towards carbon neutrality.

After the Greens enter the cabinet at the end of 2021, new impetus will be injected into the development of renewable energy. The federal government legislated to strengthen the obligation of local governments and enterprises to promote the construction of renewable energy, stipulating that 2% of German land be used for the construction of onshore wind power and setting up a regular review mechanism. This has stimulated the enthusiasm of enterprises and households to participate in the field of renewable energy, and many enterprises have increased their investment in the field of renewable energy, and many households have installed solar photovoltaic panels on their rooftops to realize self-sufficiency in energy and sell electricity to the grid.
The international situation has also contributed to the development of renewable energies in Germany. After the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis, Germany, as Europe’s largest industrial power and the world’s seventh largest energy consumer, realized the risk of over-reliance on energy imports and accelerated the development of renewable energy in order to guarantee energy security.
Challenges and strategies
The development of renewable energy in Germany is facing many challenges. in 2024, the length of negative tariffs in Germany reached 468 hours, an increase of 60% year-on-year, the volatility of renewable energy power generation impacts on the power market, bringing great pressure on the management of the power grid, and its cost-reducing mechanism has also increased the government’s financial burden. Due to the rapid growth of wind and solar power generation, the problem of excess power without effective storage is highlighted. The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) report shows that Europe may need more than 100 GW of installed energy storage capacity in 2030 to balance power supply and demand.
The intermittent and fluctuating nature of renewable energy generation makes it difficult for power grids to respond to changes in power supply and demand. To solve these problems, Germany has increased its investment in smart grid construction, utilizing big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies to predict renewable energy generation and power demand, and scheduling power in advance. At the same time, it has made continuous efforts in the research and development of energy storage technology, exploring new types of energy storage and improving energy storage efficiency.
Despite the challenges, Germany has been leading in renewable energy technology research and development. In the future, the efficiency of solar photovoltaic technology to improve, wind power technology to the deep sea and high altitude development, etc., are expected to Germany’s renewable energy power generation to bring new growth space. With its successful experience in renewable energy development, Germany will also actively engage in international cooperation with other countries to realize mutual benefits and win-win results in technology exchanges, market expansion and other aspects, so as to contribute to the development of global renewable energy.