German Gas Use Rises, Other Fossil Fuels Fall

Germany used almost 3% more gas in first half 2018 than it did in the same period of last year according to preliminary calculations by AG Energiebilanzen (Ageb) released July 31.

German 1Q gas use was up by nearly 20% year on year, it had said on May 24 noting the unusually cold winter across Europe, pushing up 1Q primary energy use 5.7% higher. In contrast, the milder weather this second quarter meant everything slipped down a notch.

The energy market research group, set up by industry associations and academics, said July 31 that not only that Germany’s primary energy use declined by 1.1% year on year to 6,771 petajoules in 1H 2018, but that oil use declined by 2.8% too, whilst gas’s increased by 2.6%.

Hard coal use fell sharply by more than 14% while that of lignite (brown coal) was 3% lower, as less of both heavily pollutive fuels were used in Germany’s power plants. The country's energy supplies over the first half of the year were therefore less carbon-intensive, noted AGEB.

Nuclear generation was up 9% but only because several units had outages in 1H 2017; the country remains committed to phasing out all nuclear generation in 2022. 

Renewable energy use was up by 4%, with all forms up (wind by 15%, hydro by 9%, solar by 8%, and biomass by 1%) all year on year. AGEB did not release data for 2Q2018-only.

Because gas was the only fossil fuel whose demand rose in the first six months of this year, its share of Germany’s energy mix increased to 25.5% (from 24.6% in the same period last year). Oil and coal eased back to 33.3% and 20.8% respectively, while nuclear gained to 5.9% and renewables to 14%. The balance of 0.5% was net electricity imports to Germany.