Electricity sector in Germany
In 2020, due to COVID-19 conditions and strong winds, Germany produced 484 TW⋅h of electricity of which over 50% was from renewable energy sources, 24% from coal, and 12% from natural gas, this amounting to 36% from fossil fuel .
[6] Germany has consistently produced the most carbon dioxide emissions in the European Union since the turn of the century, a large proportion of this coming from coal and lignite burning power stations, 7 of which are included in Europe's top 10 most CO2 polluting list of 2021.
The German government decided to phase-out nuclear power by end of 2022, however this has been delayed until April 2023 due to supply disruption caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine,[8] meaning that future growth in renewables will be needed to fill the gap again.
[11][12][13] German households and small businesses pay the highest electricity price in Europe for many years in a row now.
[18] On 8 May 2016 renewables supplied 87.6% of Germany's national electricity consumption, albeit under extremely favourable weather conditions.
[19]: 11 According to the IEA the gross production of electricity was 631 TW⋅h in 2008 which gave the seventh position among the world top producers in 2010.
The top producers were the United States (21.5%), China (17.1%), Japan (5.3%), Russia (5.1%), India (4.1%), Canada (3.2%) and Germany (3.1%).
[23] In 2020, Germany generated electricity from the following sources: 27% wind, 24% coal, 12% nuclear, 12% natural gas, 10% solar, 9.3% biomass, 3.7% hydroelectricity.
In January 2019 the German Commission on Growth, Structural Change and Employment initiates Germany's plans to entirely phase out and shut down the 84 remaining coal-fired plants on its territory by 2038.
The share of renewable and electricity increased as well as fossil fuels such as natural gas and lignite burning, substituting for nuclear power.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, along with a vast majority of her compatriots, believes, "As the first big industrialized nation, we can achieve such a transformation toward efficient and renewable energies, with all the opportunities that brings for exports, developing new technologies and jobs".
[34][35] Germany's federal government is working to increase renewable energy commercialization,[36] with a particular focus on offshore wind farms.
[37] A major challenge is the development of sufficient network capacities for transmitting the power generated in the North Sea to the large industrial consumers in southern parts of the country.
The term encompasses a reorientation of policy from demand to supply and a shift from centralized to distributed generation (for example, producing heat and power in very small cogeneration units), which should replace overproduction and avoidable energy consumption with energy-saving measures and increased efficiency.
Many powerlines in Baden-Württemberg, which were built by Energie-Versorgung-Schwaben (EVS, now part of EnBW) are equipped with a communication cable, which hangs like a garland on the ground conductor.
Some of these lines have also a second communication cable hanging on an auxiliary wire, which is usually fixed on the pinnacle of the pylon below the ground conductor.
Such devices are usually installed on lines with voltages of 110 kV and more, but there existed also a 20 kV-line near Eberdingen, which had a communication cable fixed like a garland on a conductor rope.
In contrast to the usual construction of such lattice-steel transmission towers, the direction of the line passes diagonally over the square ground cross section of the pylon, resulting in savings in material.
The mast on the Buhnenfeld bears at a height of 30 metres (98 ft) a radar facility belonging to the Water and Navigation Office of the Port of Hamburg.
Each portal mast has stairs and gangways for maintenance of flight safety beacons, and has a hoist for heavy loads.
