June 2023 was a real sunny month in almost all of Germany. High irradiation was accompanied by little wind - in the mix, renewables therefore delivered slightly less yield than planned. "In view of the almost unchanged electricity prices, there is hardly any skimmable excess yield from renewables available for the federal government either," says Markus W. Voigt, CEO of the aream Group.

In terms of solar radiation, however, June once again showed how strong the regional differences are in Europe. While Germany reported  around a 19 percent increase, the irradiation in Spain was roughly in line with the long-term average at negative four percent. "In Italy, on the other hand, solar irradiation was 24 percent below target," Voigt said. "Across Europe, that adds up to about negative 11 percent."

However, these figures only ever show one side of the coin. "Technical problems can push production results into the negative even when conditions are good," says Voigt. This mainly concerns production losses due to curtailments, but also difficulties in the grid infrastructure, for example in substations. "In addition, there are unpredictable events, such as fires or undercutting, which change the results," Voigt says. But even for such events, renewables have now built up enough of a buffer so that targets will be met over the year.

In the case of wind, Germany in particular fell well short of the target, producing only 81 percent of the average expected amount of electricity. "However, there were major regional differences here," says Voigt. "Overall over the year, the wind plants are on target." 

Electricity prices remained largely stable. "This also means that renewables are no longer generating high excess yields, as was the case at the end of last year," Voigt says. "So for the federal government, December 2022 will likely remain the only month with revenues worth skimming."