Approximately 53 Million Tons of CO2 saved in 2003
Renewable energies have again made considerable headway in the past year. Their contribution to the overall electricity consumption amounted to 7,9 percent and their share in the overall energy consumption surpassed the three percent threshold for the first time with a figure of 3,1 percent. "Renewable energies thus made a saving of about 53 million tons of carbon monoxide possible in the year 2003", stated Margareta Wolf, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Environment Ministry at a meeting of the new working group on renewable energies/statistics (Arbeitsgruppe Erneuerbare Energien-Statistik , AGEE-Stat) which took up its work today.
The 15 percent decrease in electricity production from hydropower due to dry weather conditions was more than set off by an increase in power production from other sources of renewable energy. Wind power, for example, increased by 17 percent to about 18.5 billion kilowatt hours. These figures are among the first results produced by the new "Working Group on Renewable Energies/Statistics" "The intention behind this new working group is to considerably improve the collection and availability of up to date and reliable data on the development of the renewable energies sector. Statistics in renewable energies are thus placed on a new footing", said Margareta Wolf. The results produced by this working group will serve as a basis to fulfil the different national, international and EU reporting requirements the Federal Government has to fulfil in the field of renewable energies. Margareta Wolf stated: "The results of the working group AGEE-Stat will contribute to making developments in the renewable energies sector more transparent".
The working group is an independent body of experts which groups together experts from the Ministry for the Environment, the Ministry of Economics, the Ministry for Consumer Protection and researchers and experts for statistics and economics from different institutes such as the Federal Statistical Office, the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the German Institute for Economic Research (Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, DIW) in Berlin and the Federal Association for Renewable Energies (Bundesverband Erneuerbare Energien, BEE).
Further information on renewable energies and recent data on the contribution of renewable energies to energy consumption in 2003 can be obtained from the website of the Federal Ministry for the Environment under the topic renewable energies www.erneuerbare-energien.de .