The Bundesnetzagentur publishes 2020 electricity market data
Continued rise in share of electricity generated from renewables
Year of issue 2021
Date of issue 2021.01.02
The Bundesnetzagentur today published electricity market data for the year 2020. The numbers are based on data taken from SMARD.de, the electricity market data platform of the Bundesnetzagentur.
Generation from renewable energy sources
The grid load share of electricity generated from renewables in 2020 was 49.3% (2019: 46.1%).*
Wind farms – especially those on land – made the largest contribution. On and offshore wind farms together generated 27.4%, solar covered 9.7%, and the remaining 12.2% came from biomass, hydropower and other renewables.
At 233.1 TWh in 2020, overall generation from renewable energy sources was 4.1% higher than the previous year’s figure of 223.9 TWh. Onshore wind generation (103.1 TWh) was around 3.5% higher than the previous year (99.6 TWh). Offshore wind generation was around 11.2% higher than the previous year, rising from 24.2 TWh in 2019 to 26.9 TWh in 2020. The largest increase in absolute terms was in solar generation, up from 41.9 TWh in 2019 to 45.8 TWh in 2020, an increase of 9.3%.
Generation from conventional sources totalled 259.2 TWh, down 12.2% from 2019.
Overall the grid load decreased in 2020 by 3.2% to 474.9 TWh (2019: 490.5 TWh) and the (net) amount of electricity generated fell by 5.2% to 492.3 TWh (2019: 519.2 TWh).
Daily output from renewables maintained a constant minimum of 16.0% of the total grid load in 2020. The highest share within a one-hour period, 112.2% or 49.3 GWh, was recorded on 17 May 2020 between 2pm and 3pm.
Cross-border electricity trade
Germany was again in 2020 a net exporter of electricity with a net export of 18.9 TWh, which can be broken down into 52.5 TWh exported electricity (2019: 59.4 TWh) and 33.6 TWh imported electricity (2019: 24.2 TWh). The net export fell by 46.2% compared with 2019 (35.1 TWh).
Since mid-November foreign trade between Germany and Belgium has been taking place via the direct electricity link ALEGRo (net export 0.4 TWh). A direct connection between Germany and Norway called Nordlink is being completed; it has been in trial operation since December and should go into regular operation in spring 2021.
Wholesale electricity prices
The average day-ahead wholesale price for electricity in 2020 was €30.47/MWh (2019: €37.67/MWh). The highest price on the day-ahead wholesale market (€200.04/MWh) was reached on 21 September 2020 between 7pm and 8pm. The price of electricity reached its lowest value, minus 83.94 euros per megawatt hour, on 21 April 2020 between 2pm and 3pm.
Overall there were 298 hours of negative day-ahead wholesale electricity prices on the exchange last year (2019: 211 hours).
As a result of the fallen net exports and the lower wholesale electricity prices, the export surplus** was smaller in 2020 (€351m) than in 2019 (€1,096m).
More key figures and explanations about the electricity market in 2020 are available in German on the Bundesnetzagentur’s electricity market data platform www.smard.de/page/home/topic-article/444/202398.
Data on the platform are provided by the German TSOs and can be updated on the basis of new findings.
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* The grid load share of electricity “in the grid” that was generated from renewables is calculated differently than the federal government’s target definitions for the expansion of renewable energy (Renewable Energy Sources Act, 2017), which are measured by gross electricity consumption. The grid load does not include power stations’ own consumption or industrial networks, so the calculation basis applied here – compared with the share of gross electricity consumption – typically results in a higher proportion of generation from renewables.
The grid load is calculated by taking the net electricity generation, subtracting transmission capacity exports, adding transmission capacity imports and subtracting the pumping work at pumped storage power stations.
** The export surplus is derived from the sum of the product of the hourly net exports multiplied by the corresponding day-ahead hourly prices.