Electricity production in Germany becomesever greener. Last year, renewable energy increased its supply by four per cent year on year, with wind power in position. “However, there is still much work ahead“, comments Markus W. Voigt, CEO of the aream Group. “Wind power is falling short of its targets and we need more storage capacity.“

According to the Fraunhofer Institute, the share of renewable energies in electricity production in Germany rose to 62.7 per cent in 2024. In total, renewable sources supplied 275.2 terawatt hours of electricity, which was 4.4 per cent more than in the previous year. Wind power was the most important source of electricity with a share of one third - however, the production of onshore plants remained below the previous year's level. Expansion is also insufficient: instead of the planned seven gigawatts (GW), only 2.4 GW were newly installed onshore in 2024. On the other hand, it is positive that more than 2,000 wind turbines with a total output of more than eleven gigawatts were approved last year.

Again, according to the Fraunhofer Institute, solar energy supplied 72.2 terawatt hours last year, which corresponds to a 14 per cent share of electricity production. The expansion is progressing and the German government's target of 13 per cent growth was already exceeded in November. ”However, both storage capacities and grids need to be significantly expanded in order to make better use of renewables”, says Voigt. 

The German solar plants in the aream portfolio delivered below-average results in December (target achievement 74 per cent). “December was very cloudy and the sun rarely shone“, explains Voigt. In addition, the communication and remote-control technology failed at times in some plants. In Spain, on the other hand, the weather was brilliant in December, which meant that the photovoltaic systems exceeded their target by 30 per cent. Burglary damage had to be repaired in Italian plants, the repair of storm damage was postponed and there were also isolated technical failures. As a result, production remained at 89 per cent of the target value. Conclusion for 2024: with slightly below-average irradiation values overall, the German plants achieved 95 per cent of their target for the year. Italy was at 88 per cent and Spain at 96 per cent.

The German wind turbines in the aream portfolio showed a stable performance in December with very different regional wind conditions. Almost 93 per cent of the production target was met. The figure for 2024 is 90 per cent. The result can be explained by strongly varying regional and monthly winds, which were mostly weaker, as well as curtailments during the strong wind phases.