Renewable Energy Briefly Provides Majority Of German Power

Germany's move from coal powered power plants to renewable sources of energy is beginning to become effective, with up to 85% of German power use on 30 April provided by renewable sources, the Agora Energiewende initiative has reported.

Most of Germany's coal-fired power stations were not in operation that day, the energy lobby group said (link in German), and those that were online were only operational for one hour and produced less than 8 gigawatts (GW) of energy, well below their maximum output of about 50GW. Nuclear energy sources were also reduced over the weekend of the 30th, Agora Energiewende said.

Renewable energy sources, on the other hand, produced a maximum of 55.2 GW at noon on Sunday and a low of 16Gw at midnight on the same day, with an average of 35.7GW, or 64% of the electricity consumer in Germany that day. At its peak, between 4pm and 5pm, renewable power was providing 85% of the country's electricity, Agora Energiewende said.