Coal power generation continues to decline in Germany: Destatis

The volume of electricity generated in coal-fired power plants in Germany decreased "markedly" by 37 percent to 34 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in the third quarter of 2019 compared to last year, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Tuesday.

As in the previous quarter, the volume of electricity generated using wind power and photovoltaics in Germany was "slightly" higher than coal-generated electricity, totaling 36 billion kWh in the third quarter, according to Destatis.

Destatis said that electricity generated from natural gas power plants registered the highest growth rate of all energy sources, increasing by 31 percent year-on-year to 15.6 billion kWh.

The marked "increase in the amount of electricity generated by natural gas is partly due to the favorable price development of this energy source for power plant operators," Destatis noted.

The share of all renewable energies in Germany, including wind and solar power as well as biogas, rose by 8.8 percent to 42.4 percent of total energy generation, according to Destatis.

Within the renewable energy sector, wind power registered an upswing of 18.6 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year. The shares of biogas and photovoltaics, on the other hand, stagnated or even fell slightly.

Last week, the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) said that "due to good wind conditions" in 2019, around 30,000 wind turbines installed in Germany generated 118 billion kWh of green electricity between January and mid-December.

In 2019, wind energy turbines "will for the first time generate more electricity than all other energy sources in the German energy mix." According to the BWE, wind energy would replace coal as "the number one electricity source in Germany."