WIESBADEN (dpa-AFX) - Coal gained importance as the most important energy source for electricity production in Germany last year. The share of electricity generated from coal-fired power plants, which are considered harmful to the climate, rose by 8.4 percentage points to one-third (33.3 percent) compared with 2021, the Federal Statistical Office said Thursday. The increase also helped offset sharp declines in electricity production from natural gas due to the Ukraine war and from nuclear power due to the nuclear phase-out, according to the data. The second most important energy source was wind power, whose share rose by 9.4 percentage points to just under a quarter (24.1 percent) after a comparatively windless previous year.

Overall, more than half (53.7 percent) of the electricity fed into the grid last year came from conventional energy sources such as coal, natural gas and nuclear power. However, due to the simultaneous reduction in generation at gas-fired and nuclear power plants, the share fell by 8.7 percentage points compared with the previous year. By contrast, feed-in from renewables such as wind power, photovoltaics and biogas rose by 7.3 percentage points to 46.3 percent. A significant increase in solar power also contributed to this.

Due to the tense situation on the gas market as a result of the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine, significantly less electricity was fed into the grid from natural gas (minus 11.3 percent). Natural gas for power generation has to be imported almost entirely, while Germany is less dependent on imports for coal. Nuclear energy supplied only 6.4 percent of the electricity fed into the grid due to the nuclear phase-out (2021: 12.6 percent).

In total, 509 billion kilowatt hours of electricity were generated and fed into the grid in Germany last year. That was 1.9 percent less than in 2021./mar/DP/mis