High share of renewables despite decrease

Total generation in the fourth quarter of 2024 was 112.2 TWh, down 7.5% on the fourth quarter of 2023. Renewables accounted for 52.2% of total generation compared with 57.0% a year before. Electricity consumption (grid load) decreased by 0.6% to 120.2 TWh.**

A breakdown by energy source shows a particularly large decrease in onshore wind generation. Although generation was down 23.9% year-on-year from 42.4 TWh to 32.3 TWh, it was still the second highest level recorded in a fourth quarter. Onshore wind generation had been unusually high in the fourth quarter of 2023 because of the weather conditions.

Solar generation amounted to 6.3 TWh, which was a record high for a fourth quarter and up 13.2% on 2023. Although the share of generation accounted for by solar power decreases in the autumn and winter months, sunny weather (DWD) and an increase in installed generation capacity resulted in a high level of generation.

Fewer negative prices and higher wholesale prices overall

The average day-ahead wholesale price in the fourth quarter of 2024 was €102.64/MWh, up 24.8% on 2023 (€82.25/MWh). The average wholesale price in Germany’s neighbouring countries increased by 16.2% to €93.17/MWh. The highest average prices among these countries were in Hungary (€132.91/MWh) and Italy (€126.76/MWh). Wholesale prices above €300/MWh were recorded in 35 out of 2,208 hours of the quarter in the German market area and in a total of 24 hours in Germany’s neighbouring countries. The highest wholesale prices paid in the fourth quarter of 2023 were below this level.

In November and December, especially, there were frequent periods when demand was high but a low level of renewable generation was forecast because of the weather. This is the main cause of high day-ahead wholesale prices. This was also the case on 12 December, when the highest wholesale price of the quarter (€936.28/MWh) was recorded between 5pm and 6pm. At that time, the average wholesale price in Germany’s neighbouring countries was €664/MWh. Large parts of the European internal market were affected by high wholesale prices. These repeated price peaks also had an effect on the average wholesale price. Germany’s electricity supply was not at risk at any point in time.

Price peaks are generally to be seen as the result of free pricing arising from the interaction of supply and demand and as part of market activity in short-term electricity wholesale trading. However, the Bundesnetzagentur routinely examines the reasons for and causes of price peaks in order to rule out price gouging.

The number of hours in which electricity was traded at negative prices was lower than in the fourth quarter of 2023. Negative day-ahead wholesale prices were recorded in only 44 hours, compared with 113 in 2023. As demand always has to be found for electricity fed into the grid, negative prices can occur when a high level of inflexible electricity generation coincides with a low level of demand. This may be the case when, for example, there is a particularly high level of wind and solar generation on public holidays.

Compared with 2021 and 2022 wholesale prices were again considerably lower. In the fourth quarter of 2022 the average day-ahead wholesale price was €192.81/MWh and in the fourth quarter of 2021 it was €178.91/MWh.

Commercial foreign trade

Germany imported 16.6 TWh of electricity, up 46.7% on the fourth quarter of 2023. The country supplying the largest amount of electricity to Germany was Denmark (4.5 TWh), followed by France (3.0 TWh). A total of 52.5% of the electricity imported came from renewables, compared with 49.4% in the fourth quarter of 2023.*** This rise is due in particular to the large increase of 94.5% in imports from Denmark, as 79.4% of the electricity imported from Denmark was generated by renewables. The lower average wholesale prices in Germany’s neighbouring countries meant that it often made more financial sense for Germany to import electricity than to generate electricity at higher prices.

Electricity exports were down 13.6% on the fourth quarter of 2023 to 10.1 TWh. As in 2023, Germany exported the largest amount of electricity (3.0 TWh) to Austria. In the fourth quarter of 2023 Germany exported slightly more electricity than it imported (net exports of 0.3 TWh), but in the fourth quarter of 2024 it imported more than it exported (net imports of 6.6 TWh).

An overview of Germany’s commercial foreign trade in electricity in the fourth quarter of 2024:

• Belgium:
  exports: 662.7 GWh, imports: 978.4 GWh
• Denmark 1:
  exports: 245.3 GWh, imports: 3,206.6 GWh
• Denmark 2:
  exports: 108.6 GWh, imports: 1,267.4 GWh
• France:
  exports: 1,071.8 GWh, imports: 3,034.1 GWh
• Netherlands:
  exports: 1,213.8 GWh, imports: 1,659.7 GWh
• Norway:
  exports: 120.1 GWh, imports: 1,938.5 GWh
• Austria:
  exports: 3,016.2 GWh, imports: 471.4 GWh
• Poland:
  exports: 1,250.7 GWh, imports: 562.8 GWh
• Sweden:
  exports: 38.8 GWh, imports: 1,012.2 GWh
• Switzerland:
  exports: 992.1 GWh, imports: 1,913.7 GWh
• Czechia:
  exports: 1,334.0 GWh, imports: 594.4 GWh.

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*The actual generation is the net electricity generation. It is the electricity fed into the general supply network less the electricity consumed by power plants themselves. It does not include electricity generated in the Deutsche Bahn network or within industrial networks and closed distribution networks.

**The grid load share of electricity that was generated from renewables is calculated differently from the federal government’s target definitions for the expansion of renewable energy under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), where the basis for calculation is gross electricity consumption. The grid load does not include power stations’ own consumption or industrial networks, so the calculation basis applied here – compared with the share of gross electricity consumption – typically results in a higher proportion of generation from renewables. The grid load is calculated by taking the net electricity generation, subtracting transmission capacity exports, adding transmission capacity imports and subtracting the pumping work at pumped storage power stations.

***Information about how the energy mix of electricity imports and exports is calculated is available here.

The figures presented in the charts and in the text may be updated at a later date. Further information about possible updates and data definitions is available (in German) in the user guide.