Small increase in total generation by renewables due to strong solar growth

The total amount of electricity generated and fed into the general supply network in Germany in 2025 was about 437.6 terawatt hours (TWh), almost the same as in 2024 (437.7 TWh).* Renewables accounted for 257.5 TWh or 58.8% of total generation, representing a slight year-on-year increase in both the absolute amount and the share of total generation (2024: 256.2 TWh and 58.5%).

Among the renewables, solar recorded a large year-on-year increase of 17.3% in total generation to 74.1 TWh. Solar generation achieved a record high in each quarter and in each month of the year except for July and September. This was primarily due to a substantial increase of nearly 10 gigawatts (GW) in solar capacity and above-average levels of sunshine in the spring and the summer (DWD). There was a slight increase of 1.7% in feed-in from offshore wind but a decrease in generation by all other renewable sources. The largest year-on-year decrease was in hydropower generation, which was down about 20% to 14.0 TWh. Nevertheless, the strong growth in solar output resulted in a year-on-year increase of 0.5% in total renewable generation.

Electricity that is generated by private household solar installations and used by the households themselves is not included in the figure for actual generation. Only the electricity that these installations generate and feed into the general supply network is included.

There were different trends in generation using conventional energy sources. Generation from lignite was down 5.4% on the previous year to 67.2 TWh, lower than solar generation. By contrast, generation from hard coal was 3.0% higher and generation using natural gas was 6.4% higher. Overall, conventional generation was down 0.7% on 2024.

Electricity consumption (grid load) in 2025 amounted to 465.9 TWh, about 0.1% higher than in 2024 (465.6 TWh).** There was a larger decrease of 1.9% in the residual load – the grid load not covered by solar or wind generation – to 259.2 TWh, meaning that a greater proportion of the grid load was covered by wind and solar.

Germany’s wholesale prices rose less sharply than those of its neighbours

The average day-ahead wholesale price was 89.32 euros per megawatt hour, 13.8% higher than the previous year’s average of €78.51/MWh. There was a slightly steeper increase of 17.3% in the average wholesale price in neighbouring countries, from €71.44/MWh in 2024 to €83.78/MWh in 2025.

The largest increases in wholesale prices compared with 2024 were in Switzerland (€101.69/MWh, 33.9%), the Norway 2 market area (€65.40/MWh, 30.5%) and the Sweden 4 market area (€60.43/MWh, 21.6%).

The highest wholesale price of the year was recorded between 5pm and 6pm on Monday 20 January and was €583.40/MWh. Consumption during this hour was forecast to be 69.7 gigawatt hours (GWh) and solar and wind generation only about 3.4 GWh. Actual generation from solar and wind was about 4.6 GWh, while actual consumption was 70.6 GWh. As prices in wholesale electricity trading are largely set on the day-ahead market, the forecast figures are decisive for the development of the wholesale prices.

The highest day-ahead wholesale price in 2024 had been €936.28/MWh. The Bundesnetzagentur and the Bundeskartellamt investigated this extreme price and other price peaks in winter 2024 for indications of abusive market practices. However, no evidence of abusive behaviour was found.

Overall, there were larger fluctuations in wholesale prices in 2025 than in the previous year. Although the extreme price peaks in 2024 were considerably higher, wholesale prices exceeded €100/MWh much more often in 2025. Average wholesale prices were therefore ultimately higher, despite prices being lower or negative in more hours.

Negative wholesale prices were recorded in 573 out of a total of 8,760 hours in 2025. Negative prices can occur when a high and inflexible level of generation meets low demand. This typically happens at weekends in the summer and on public holidays. In 2024 negative prices had been recorded in 457 out of 8,784 hours. As 2024 was a leap year, it had 24 more hours than 2025.

Net imports fell by more than 20 percent

In 2025 Germany exported a total of 54.3 TWh of electricity, 11.1% more than in the previous year. Electricity imports were down by 1.3% to 76.2 TWh, resulting in net imports of 21.9 TWh, compared with 28.3 TWh in 2024.

The energy mix of electricity imports and exports shows that onshore wind had the largest share in total exports in 2025, as in 2024, although its share fell from 31.6% to 28.7%. By contrast, solar’s share in electricity exports increased from 14.4% to 17.7%. There were only slight changes in the shares of the other energy sources. In 2025 renewables accounted for 63.9% of exports, compared with 64.3% in 2024.

Nuclear energy had the largest share in electricity imports at 22.0% or about 28.6 TWh, compared with 27.5% in 2024. This decrease represents by far the largest change in the energy mix of imports. Hydropower had the second largest share in imports, as in 2024, with 19.8%.

Germany exported the largest amount of electricity (13.5 TWh) to Austria. Although this was also the case in 2024, exports to Germany’s neighbour were up by 41.8%. The largest increase in exports was to Switzerland, with a rise of 81.5% to 5.6 TWh.

The country supplying the largest amount of electricity to Germany was Denmark (19.4 TWh), followed by France (13.7 TWh). However, imports from France were 14.3% lower than in the previous year. The largest increase in imports was from the Netherlands, with a rise of 48.1% to 13.1 TWh.

Overview of commercial foreign trade (rounded figures):***

_____________________________________________
*The actual generation is the net electricity generation. It is the electricity fed into the general supply network less the electricity consumed by power plants themselves. It does not include electricity generated in the Deutsche Bahn network or within industrial networks and closed distribution networks.

**The grid load share of electricity that was generated from renewables is calculated differently from the federal government’s target definitions for the expansion of renewable energy under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), where the basis for calculation is 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.

***As the methods for calculating the energy mix of electricity imports and exports differ slightly from the methods for calculating total imports and exports, the sum of the individual energy mix figures for a country may differ from the totals given here.