How much of Germany electricity comes from renewable energy hits a record 58% in first half of 2026

How much of Germany electricity comes from renewable energy

How much of Germany electricity comes from renewable energy reached a record in the first half of 2026. Renewable sources covered 58% of the electricity Germany used, known as gross electricity consumption, the German energy industry association BDEW and the public research institute ZSW state in a joint release. That is a record for any first half of a year and up nearly 3 percentage points from the same 6 months a year earlier. Germany generated 152.2 billion kilowatt hours of renewable electricity in the period, a billion kilowatt hours being the standard unit for measuring large amounts of electricity, out of 263.5 billion kilowatt hours generated in total.

Wind and solar did the heavy lifting

Wind and solar did the heavy lifting behind the record. Offshore wind generation, power from turbines built out at sea, rose 28.3% from the same half year a year earlier, and onshore wind rose 7.0%, BDEW and ZSW state. Solar power grew 3.7%. Hydropower, electricity made from the force of flowing water, fell 7.7% because of lower rainfall. Kerstin Andreae, chief executive of BDEW, said, "Investment will only flow where there are reliable rules in place," pointing to what the industry says it needs from policymakers to keep building. Germany has set a target of 80% renewable electricity consumption by 2030.

A different measurement, a different record

A separate measurement gives a different, larger record for the same half year. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, using its own Energy Charts data platform, states that renewable sources supplied 61.8% of net public electricity generation, meaning power actually fed into the public grid, excluding electricity that factories and other large users generate and consume themselves, in the first half of 2026. That figure grew only 0.5 percentage points from a year earlier, far less than the nearly 3 point gain in the headline consumption figure, because it was already high a year before. Reading the Fraunhofer release directly, rather than the coverage repeating only the 61.8% record, is the only way to see how small that specific year on year move actually was.

Fossil power grew too

Fossil fuel generation itself rose in the same half year the renewable share hit its record. Fossil fuel power, electricity made by burning coal, natural gas or oil, climbed 6% year on year to 78.6 billion kilowatt hours, Fraunhofer states. A renewable record and a fossil fuel increase both happening at once only make sense if total electricity generation grew even faster than either source alone, filling more demand overall rather than renewable power directly replacing fossil power. Fossil fuels remained the single largest source of net public electricity generation in the half year, ahead of onshore wind at 52.8 billion kilowatt hours and solar at 43.2 billion kilowatt hours.