Germany likely to pass 50% mark for renewable power this year - minister - Reuters
Germany likely to pass 50% mark for renewable power this year - minister | Reuters
Germany likely to pass 50% mark for renewable power this year - minister
A general view of a solar park in-front of the Unterweser Nuclear Power Plant in Stadland, Germany August 26, 2022. REUTERS/Benjamin Westhoff Acquire Licensing Rights
BERLIN, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Germany is likely to generate more than 50% of its power from renewable energy this year but needs to ramp up the speed of its transition towards the end of the decade, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Monday.
With demand for electricity on the rise, renewables would have to account for 80% of power generation by 2030, Habeck told a conference organised by the Heinrich Boell foundation in Berlin.
"We won't get there at the current pace," he said.
The economy minister, whose portfolio also includes energy and climate action, spoke of a boom in the solar power industry, with this year's target of achieving 9-gigawatt capacity expected to be reached.
The expansion of onshore wind energy was also progressing well, he said, with 2022's full-year volumes already reached by the end of July 2023.
Offshore wind energy expansion was being hampered by a lack of components needed to build the facilities, according to the minister.
Reporting by Christian Kraemer, Writing by Rachel More; editing by Matthias Williams
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: renewables
Renewable energy sources — once the fuel of the future, then practical in specific, narrow applications — are increasingly economic mainstream sources of power generation. Hydropower was long the mainstay of U.S. renewable electricity generation, although wind power surpassed hydro for the first time in 2019, and solar continues its rapid growth. The continued growth of wind and solar, with their fluctuations, is tied in part to improvements in storage technology: batteries.