According to this, electricity consumption fell by around 4% compared to the previous year 2021. This may be due on the one hand to the rather mild winter until the turn of the year and on the other hand, in view of Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine and the associated turbulence in the energy market, to the more conscious saving behaviour of the German population.

Generation from conventional energies fell by around -5.7 percent compared to the previous year, while generation from renewable energies rose significantly by +8.5* percent. There was a particular increase of around 18.7 percent in renewable energies in the photovoltaic sector, not only due to the favourable weather conditions, but also due to the addition of +4.4 GW of plants to a total of 57.7 GW.

Wind power generation was also higher than in the previous year. Onshore generation increased by +12.4 percent and offshore generation by +2.9 percent.

For the coming years, the federal government plans a significant expansion of electricity generation from onshore wind turbines by +10 GW/year. However, this plan is stalling due to a lack of and extensive complaints about permits. The measures and plans of the so-called Easter Package have so far come to nothing.

Generation from nuclear energy decreased significantly, resulting from the shutdown of individual nuclear power plants at the end of 2021. Overall, the share of total generation fell by -49.8 percent. In contrast, generation by gas-fired power plants increased by +1.7 percent despite the lack of gas deliveries from Russia. This is attributed to the high operational flexibility of the power plants. Compared to coal-fired and nuclear power plants, they are far less cumbersome to manage in ramping up and down.

The return of coal-fired power plants to the electricity market by the federal government in response to wholesale gas prices increased generation by +5.4 percent from lignite and +21.4 percent from hard coal.

The average wholesale electricity price rose by +140.4 per cent in 2022 compared to the previous year to 232.85 euros/MWh

For more information on the electricity market in 2022, see SMARD | Der Strommarkt im Jahr 2022.

*Note: The significant increase of +8.5 percent in generation from renewable energies refers to the so-called grid load and not to gross electricity consumption. The grid load does not include power plants' own consumption or industrial grids, so that the calculation basis used tends to result in a higher share of renewable energies compared to the share of gross electricity consumption.