From KlimaNachrichten

By KlimaNachrichten Editor

You should always keep in mind that electricity from the sun and wind depends on the whims of nature.

The first half of 2025 illustrates this very well.

Although wind power capacities of 2 GW net were added in the first 6 months, the yield fell.

Destatis:

In the 1st half of 2025, 221 billion kilowatt hours of electricity were generated in Germany and fed into the grid.
Based on provisional results, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that this was an increase of 0.3% compared with the 1st half of 2024. Electricity fed into the grid from renewable energy sources fell by 5.9% to 127.7 billion kilowatt hours.
This means that 57.8% of domestically produced electricity came from renewable sources (H1 2024: 61.6%).
In contrast, electricity generation from conventional energy sources increased by 10.1% year-on-year to 93.2 billion kilowatt hours and accounted for 42.2% of domestic electricity production (H1 2024: 38.4%).

The increase in coal is remarkable.

The amount of electricity generated in coal-fired power plants rose by 9.3% to 50.3 billion kilowatt hours in the 1st half of 2025 compared with the 1st half of 2024. Coal thus remained the second most important energy source in domestic electricity generation, accounting for 22.7% of the total electricity produced.Electricity generation from natural gas also increased, by 11.6% year-on-year to 35.8 billion kilowatt hours. However, the growth in photovoltaics was so strong that natural gas fell to fourth place among the most important energy sources with a share of 16.2% of total electricity production.

Equally noteworthy are the press releases of the Federal Environment Agency on the subject, which were already made in July 2025 and which were wrong by 20%.
Instead of 5%, it was actually almost 6% less.
Apparently, what should not be allowed to be in the authority.

According to current evaluations by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), electricity generation from renewable energies in the first half of 2025 was around five percent below the level of the corresponding period last year. The main cause was exceptionally windless weather in both the winter and spring months. Despite these unfavorable conditions, the share of renewable energies in gross electricity consumption was maintained at 54 percent – not least thanks to a strong expansion of photovoltaics. Progress was also made in the heating and transport sectors, albeit to a limited extent.

What was the reason for the decline in wind power? Fraunhofer ISE has probably the most plausible explanation for this:

“Simply because there was no wind.”

Ah, then we finally know what was going on.