In 2024, 517 terawatt hours (TWh = billion kWh) were generated from renewable energy sources in Germany. Electricity production accounted for 55 percent, the heating sector for around 38 per cent and fuels (mobility) for approximately 6 percent.

However, there is still a lot to be done in the coming years. The ambitious EU climate targets for 2030 set the tone. How can the share of renewable energy sources be doubled?

The heating and transport sectors must be significantly expanded in the future!

But these last two areas have been slow to grow in recent years. While the share of renewable energy sources in gross electricity consumption has almost doubled to 54.4 percent, the shares from the heating (18.1 percent) and transport (7.2 percent) sectors have stagnated.

Biomass remains the most important energy source. This is due to its flexible uses as a solid fuel, as gas for electricity generation or as a fuel for mobility. Biomass covers around 47 percent of renewable energy supply. It is followed by wind energy with around 27 percent, solar energy in photovoltaics and solar thermal energy with 16 percent, and the remaining 10 per cent from hydropower, geothermal energy and environmental heat.

The wind power sector benefited from good weather conditions in 2024. In addition to more wind than in previous years, there were also more hours of sunshine, which had a positive impact on solar energy.

In 2024, wind energy provided approximately 138.9 TWh of electricity. 74.1 TWh came from photovoltaics, 48.6 TWh from biomass and 22.2 TWh from hydropower. In the smaller heating sector, around 159.1 TWh (31%) was generated from biomass and around 38.1 TWh from geothermal and solar thermal energy. Biofuels for transport accounted for 32.7 TWh.

The use of geothermal and environmental heat via heat pump technology is playing an increasingly important role in the development of renewable heat. The share from wood combustion has been pushed back to pre-gas crisis levels.

Renewable energies account for the lowest share in the transport sector. In 2024, it amounted to around 7.2 percent and mainly consisted of electricity for rail and road transport. There was a decline in the sale of biofuels. Due to a change in legislation in autumn 2024, a significant increase in biofuels in the transport sector is expected between 2025 and 2027.

An increase in renewable energies is leading to a displacement of fossil fuels, thereby avoiding greenhouse gas emissions. In 2024, the use of renewable energies in Germany avoided climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions of around 256 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents.