BERLIN, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Germany generated 104 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable electricity in the first half of 2018, a new record in terms of six-month generation, data published on Monday by the energy company E.ON showed.
The generation, 9 percent more over the same period of last year, marked the first time that more than 100 billion kWh of renewable electricity was generated from wind-, solar-, hydro- and biomass-powered plants within six months in Germany.
By the ways of generation, wind power, onshore and off-shore, took the lion's share with 55 billion kWh, more than half of the total. And an annual increase of 7 billion kWh registered in wind-generated electricity also accounted for the most part of the overall annual increase in renewable output.
Hydro power output was also up by 1 billion kWh to 8 billion kWh, while bio-mass production was steady at 20 billion kWh.
Notably, electricity generated by photovoltaic (PV) technology was not assessed due to its direct consumption by users which have PVS installed panels and hence do not rely on transmission networks. However, E.ON estimated that solar-thermal power travelling along the German grid in its measurements grew slightly by 1 billion kWh to 21 billion kWh.
The single largest daily generation of 1.1 billion kWh renewable energies in the German electricity network was made on Jan. 3 thanks to the raging winds during the storm "Burglind". On that day, 71.6 percent of total electricity consumption in Germany was covered by clean energy.
Speaking to Xinhua, Hubertus Bardt, head of research at IW, said that "the expansion of wind energy and solar plants continues to make rapid progress." According to Bardt, the downside is that "the grid expansion is lagging far behind and the goal of an economically viable energy policy is not being achieved".
Estimates by the German Federal Association of the German Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) indicate that renewables accounted for a relatively small share of 36 percent of total electricity consumption on average in 2017. Nevertheless, E.ON emphasized that German renewable energy production has now increased by a third in the course of only three years.
