Germany's total electricity generation from renewable and conventional energy sources in October and November amounted to 93.2 TWh, 1.2% lower than in the same period of the previous year. The highest hourly output of 80.4 GWh was produced on Tuesday, 20 November (down approx 3.4 GWh year-on-year). The lowest output of 46.2 GWh was on Sunday, 21 October and was well above the lowest figure from the previous year, which occurred during a long weekend.

Wind power made a strong contribution to electricity generation in both 2017 and 2018, partly due to autumn storms. However, October 2018 was less windy overall than the same month of the year before, leading to a decline of about 14%, or 10.7 TWh, in wind energy (2017: 12.5 TWh). The situation in November was similar, with wind installations producing 9.9 TWh, about 3.2% less than the 10.3 TWh produced in 2017.

Autumn this year saw a lot of sun and a corresponding rise in generation from solar installations. There was an overall increase of 32.3% year-on-year in the two-month period. Broken down, solar generation was 2.7 TWh in October 2018 compared with 2.1 TWh in 2017, and 1.1 TWh in November compared with 0.8 TWh the year before.

The graph illustrates electricity generation and consumption in the months of October and November. It shows total electricity generation and consumption on each day in the period. The highest hourly output occurred on 20 November, which is also reflected in the generation for the whole day. It was the day with the highest output in the period.

Highest and lowest outputs of renewable electricity generation

Renewables in Germany produced the most electricity of the last two months on Tuesday, 23 October. That was the day that storm "Sieglinde" hit the country and caused high levels of generation by wind turbines. Combined renewable energy generation peaked at 49 GWh in an hour, a decrease of 11% on the peak from the same period last year and more than double the average hourly generation from renewables in October and November (23 GWh).

The lowest hourly output from renewables was 7.1 GWh on Friday, 19 October.

The graph shows the day when renewables produced their highest output (23 October). Conventional power plants adapted to the changes in demand and scaled back generation. The red line shows consumption.

Highest and lowest outputs of conventional electricity generation

Conventional power plants have, as far as technically feasible and economically reasonable, adapted flexibly to the generation from renewables. Conventional generation recorded its lowest hourly output of 18.6 GWh on the bank holiday of 3 October. The highest hourly output from conventional energy sources was 62.9 GWh on Thursday, 27 November, when renewables generated barely 13 GWh.