The renewable energy market is still growing: the share of renewable energies in electricity consumption increased to 10.2 percent in 2005, compared to a share of 9.4 percent in 2004. This is an increase of approx. 62 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh). Michael Müller, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Environment Ministry, pointed out: "Thanks to favourable framework conditions renewable energies have become a success story. If we strongly increase the use of renewables, generate energy from fossil energy sources more efficiently and generally use energy in a smarter way, we are helping new technologies to break through. Environmentally oriented innovations help us secure our leading position in technologies, strengthen our competitiveness and create new jobs."
At the annual conference of the renewable energies sector in Berlin, Mr Müller presented the latest data collected by the working group on renewable energies statistics (Arbeitsgruppe Erneuerbare-Energien-Statistik - AGEE-Stat) whose members come, for example, from the Federal Environment Ministry, the Federal Ministry of Economics, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, the Federal Environmental Agency and the Federal Statistical Office. In relation to the total primary energy consumption the share of renewable energies rose to 4.6 percent last year compared to 4.0 percent in 2004. Thus, the goal of a 4.2 % share in 2010 was already exceeded in 2005.
In 2005 wind energy once again made the largest contribution (approx. 26.5 billion kWh) to electricity generation from renewable energy sources, followed by hydropower (approx. 21.5 billion kWh) and biomass (approx. 10 billion kWh). Compared to the previous year the generation of electricity from biogas (approx. 2 billion kWh) recorded an especially strong increase. Electricity from wind energy went up by approx. 1 billion kWh and electricity from hydropower by approx. 0.5 billion kWh. The production electricity from solar power doubled to about 1 billion kWh. Parliamentary State Secretary Müller was optimistic that the Federal Government would reach its goal of raising the share of renewable energies to at least 20 percent by 2010. Under favourable conditions it would be possible to reach 25 percent.
Biomass covers the renewables heat market with about 94 percent of the energy supply. The contribution of solarthermal energy continued to increase compared to the previous year. Almost 1 million square meters of collector area were installed in 2005. The Federal Government's market incentive programme continues to be a decisive factor here. The share of renewable energies in the overall heat market is 5.4 percent.
Parliamentary State Secretary Müller said: "On the heat market we want to achieve the same successes we have achieved in the electricity sector. This is why we are working on an act for the promotion of heat supply from renewable energy sources. Apart from this we are continuing with the market incentive programme on the same scale as before."
Another success is the development of biofuel usage: at approx. 2 million tonnes the sales almost doubled compared to the year before.
The use of renewable energy sources helped to avoid a total of about 83 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2005. Parliamentary State Secretary Müller commented: "This shows that renewable energy sources make a lasting contribution to climate protection and to the fulfilment of our commitments under the Kyoto Protocol."
Renewable energies are now of great importance for the economy: in 2005 the turnover in this sector was approx. 16 billion euro in Germany. 157,000 people were employed in this future-oriented sector in 2004. And the prospects are even more promising.