Coal
Electrical power supply of Germany 2009 [596643 GWh]
Nuclear power
Oil (all types)/ Natural gas
Other 89400; 15%
23244; 4% Solar (all types)
134696; 23% 9361900%; 16% 255684; 43%
37800; 6%
28600; 5% Water power (all types)
19000; 3%
Wind (on- and offshore) 2019; 0%
Biomass
6200; 1% Geothermal energy (19 GWh) + Landfill & Digester gas (2000 GWh) Source: BMU 2010 & BMWI 2010
2. Future market in Germany: Repowering Repowering means to substitute first‐generation wind turbines with modern multi‐megawatt wind turbines. This topic has only played a secondary role in the German wind energy market. However many factors speak in favor of a comprehensive repowering program for Germany. The goal is to exploit used locations and improve the installed performance while reducing the quantity of wind turbines. It is possible to produce more energy with less wind turbines in established wind locations. In the year 2012 more than 9359 wind turbines will be older than 12 years. They are generally built in the north coast of Germany where great potentials for strong winds exist. First‐generation wind turbines normally produce 500kW.Whereas the newest generation is much more efficient and is able to produce 2,4MW of energy. This advance triples the profit with a performance increase to 460%. The EEG (ErneuerbareEnergienGesetz = Renewable Energy Law) of Germany has many inducements for Repowering. The payment of on land produced energy increased from 7,87 to 9,2 Cent/kWh. Furthermore a bonus is offered for energy produced by repowered wind turbines of 0,5 Cent/kWh. This Repowering‐Bonus is a great signal to invest in Repowering. With Repowering it is possible to reuse old locations, so that we do not have to seal new areas. We can produce a double performance by making a triple of profit while reducing the quantity of wind turbines by 50 %. (Source: Bundesverband WindEnergie e.V.) 3. What are the biggest potentials concerning renewable energy production in G E R M A N Y and what obstacles hinder a higher degree of their use now or in the future? In Germany, solar power and wind energy inter alia are highly subsidised by the government. Therefore, these types of energy supply are getting more and more popular. Every electric power consumer in Germany pays for the rise of these renewable energies with his or her electricity bill. Eventhough the liberal‐conservative government has now reduced these subsidies drastically, one can say that there is still a lot of potential, concerning the off‐shore windparks, for example. Eventhough Germany has a liberalized energy market, there are actually 4 big suppliers (E.On, EnBW, Vattenfall, RWE), which dominate the market. These companies all have large power plants like nuclear power stations and coal power plants. They earn a lot of money with these power plants once they are written off. So renewable energies, which are mostly very decentralisized, are competitors. They cannot earn as much money as they can with large power plants. Furthermore they have good lobbyists in Berlin. A strong argument used to be, that all the big power plants offer a lot of workplaces. In the meantime, a lot more people work directly or indirectly for the renewable energy business. Still, a lot of people don’t trust in the stability of renewable energy supply. Customers have more power in a liberalized energy market by changing their energy supplier. There are suppliers on the market which only offer “green energy” and don’t have any links to the 4 big suppliers. Germany is a leading country concerning renewable energy supply, but the process towards 100% renewable energy is still to slow.