Berlin, August 5 - Neftegaz.RU. In H1 2021, natural gas became Germany’s main source of energy for the 1st time ever, according to AGEB energy industry think tank.
From January to June, German primary energy consumption gained 4.3% year-on-year, amounted to 6191 petajoules.
Natural gas use increased by 15.6% year-on-year.
The main reason for this development was the significantly cooler and also rather windless weather in the 1st 3 months of the year compared to the same period of 2020, which led to the increased use of natural gas for heat and power generation.
For the 1st time ever gas took the 1st place among other energy sources.
Its share reached 30.6%.
Germany’s 2nd energy source is oil with a share of 28.6%.
The 3rd one is renewables (16.8%).
They are followed by lignite (8.4%), hard coal (8.2%) and nuclear energy (6%).
While hydropower plants were able to increase by 5 %, wind energy experienced a minus of 20 % compared to the windy previous year.
The contribution of solar energy in Germany remained stable despite the expansion of plants.
Biomass recorded a plus of 6 % due to the temperature.
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Natural gas becomes Germany’s main energy source
Germany relies still heavily on imports of fossil fuels, as its domestic resources are largely depleted, or their extraction is too costly