Gas Use Grows in Germany, Coal and Nuclear Shrink: AGEB

Germany used 3% more gas year on year in first half 2017, according to authoritative preliminary data released on August 1. A cooler start to this year than to 2016 meant that more was used for heating homes, but it was also higher among industrial end-users, said industry-academic think-tank AG Energiebilanzen (AGEB). Low gas relative to coal prices, and demand from combined heat and power (CHP) plants, meant that gas use by generators continued to rise. Oil consumption too was up 2.6% but that was due to road vehicles and aviation, it added.

German utilities association BDEW reported similar conclusions on gas demand on July 31.

Brown coal (lignite) use also rose by 3% but coal use fell by 6.7%, reported AGEB. Both are used in power generation, in which sector coal’s use fell even more sharply by 9%, it said. Coal's decline however was dwarfed by nuclear energy production, which fell by 17.5% year on year as the sector follows government rules set in 2011 requiring reactors to be closed prematurely.

Oil remained the most used fuel in Germany in 1H 2017, with gas second, with renewable energy in third place, ahead of coal and lignite in roughly equal fourth position. Thus, petroleum covered three-fifths and coal/lignite one-fifth of Germany’s primary energy in 1H 2017, said AGEB.

But in terms of volume growth, renewables were the big winner, up 6.4% year on year. That split out into gains for wind and solar generation into the grid of 19% and 14% respectively, with biomass up 5%, contrasting with hydro-generation which was 18% lower year on year.

Germany’s total primary energy consumption – the sum of all the above – was 0.8% higher at 6,882 petajoules in 1H2017 (or the equivalent of 234.8mn metric tons of coal).

German primary energy consumption, market shares in 1H2017 (versus 1H2016), showing oil in red, gas in orange, coal grey, lignite brown, nuclear blue, and renewables in green. The other 0.5% is net electricity imports. (Graphic credit: AGEB)

Mark Smedley