Electricity consumption (grid load) in Q1 2026 totalled 127.2 TWh, up 1.9% on Q1 2025. The last time a higher grid load was recorded was in Q1 2022.

The residual load fell by 8.5% to 72.9 TWh. This means that a larger proportion of the grid load was covered by wind and solar generation than in Q1 2025, despite the increase in total electricity consumption.*

Significantly higher generation than in first quarter of 2025

Actual generation was up 7.0% on Q1 2025 at 126.0 TWh.** This was the highest quarterly generation figure since Q1 2023 and the largest year-on-year increase since Q2 2021. Renewables accounted for 52.8% or about 66.5 TWh of total generation, compared with 49.4% and 58.1 TWh in Q1 2025.

Onshore wind had the largest share in total generation among all energy sources, as in Q1 2025. Generation from onshore wind amounted to 33.1 TWh, up 22.8% on Q1 2025 (26.9 TWh). This large increase is due to the comparatively high average level of generation (in the long-term context) in the quarter and the relatively low wind levels in Q1 2025. By way of comparison, onshore wind generation in each of the first quarters of 2022 to 2024 was more than 37 TWh.

Offshore wind achieved a record quarterly high of 9.7 TWh, up 45.4% on Q1 2025. The previous quarterly high of 9.0 TWh was recorded in Q4 2025 and the previous first-quarterly high of 8.9 TWh in Q1 2020.

There was a slight year-on-year decrease in solar generation.*** At 11.5 TWh, solar generated almost as much as in Q1 2025 and achieved the second highest level in any first quarter so far. While generation in January and March 2026 was slightly higher than the previous record highs from a year before, February’s level of 2.5 TWh was lower than the 3.0 TWh recorded in February 2025. The fact that this was the second highest level for any February despite comparatively low levels of sunshine (DWD) reflects the large increase in installed solar capacity.

The only year-on-year increases in generation among conventional energy sources were recorded by natural gas and “other conventional” sources. Generation using natural gas was up 5.8% on Q1 2025 at 22.5 TWh, while generation from lignite was down 5.0% at 20.1 TWh and generation from hard coal down 3.0% at 10.7 TWh.

On average, wholesale gas prices in Q1 2026 were lower than in Q1 2025, despite the ongoing conflict in Iran. Although there was a considerable increase in prices in March, prices in January and February were significantly lower than a year earlier. At the same time, carbon prices were higher than in Q1 2025, which made electricity generation by gas-fired power plants cheaper than generation by coal-fired plants because gas power plants produce fewer carbon emissions. As gas prices rose when the Iran conflict began, however, gas plants frequently fell behind coal plants in the merit order.

The time series show this development: while electricity generation using natural gas decreased after the start of the conflict at the end of February, generation using coal increased. Generation by gas power plants reached monthly record highs in January (9.8 TWh) and February (8.0 TWh) but fell to 4.6 TWh in March. It is not unusual for conventional energy sources to produce less electricity in March than in January and February because solar generation increases in March, as can also be seen clearly in the time series. The decrease in conventional generation was smaller in previous years, however, and generation using natural gas in March 2025 was considerably higher at 5.7 TWh.

Lower wholesale prices

The average day-ahead wholesale electricity price in Q1 2026 was €102.17/MWh, down 8.7% on Q1 2025. In contrast to Q1 2025, this was lower than the average price in Germany’s neighbouring countries, which increased slightly to €105.43/MWh. The main reasons for this are the high level of generation by renewables, as described above, and the overall lower level of gas prices during the quarter.

In October 2025 trading for all products on the day-ahead market switched to quarter-hourly blocks. SMARD therefore now also has quarter-hourly data, and this has to be taken into account when comparing the figures in this report with previous quarterly and yearly reports.

In Q1 2026 particularly high prices above €300/MWh were recorded in 12 out of 8,640 quarter-hours, compared with 60 quarter-hours in Q1 2025. The highest day-ahead wholesale price of the quarter was recorded on 4 March between 5.45pm and 6pm and was €429.36/MWh. The number of quarter-hours with negative wholesale prices was 172 out of 8,640, more or less the same as in Q1 2025 (176).

There was a change in the development of the quarter-hourly wholesale prices following the start of the Iran conflict: from the end of February onwards, prices fluctuated more, with more frequent and larger positive and negative peaks. This effect is not unusual in March, when solar generation increases, as described above, and when consumption decreases, above all because less electricity is needed for heating. This means that more cheaper electricity is on offer, and more often, while demand tends to fall, which in turn leads to more periods with very low prices. In March 2026, however, the increase in gas prices resulted in more spikes in prices: eight of the 12 quarter-hours in Q1 2026 with prices above €300/MWh were in March.

There were some large differences in the development of average wholesale prices in Germany’s neighbouring countries. Overall, Germany’s day-ahead price fell more than in most of the neighbouring countries and, in absolute terms, was in the middle of the range.

Germany net exporter of electricity for first time since 2023

Germany exported a total of 17.9 TWh of electricity in Q1 2026, 23.5% more than in Q1 2025. Electricity imports totalled 15.3 TWh, representing a decrease of 17.5% on Q1 2025. This resulted in a balance of net exports of 2.6 TWh, compared with net imports of 4.0 TWh in Q1 2025. It was the first quarter since Q4 2023 to record a net export balance.

This development was mainly due to the fact that Germany’s wholesale prices fell more than in most of its neighbouring countries. It was therefore more often financially sensible for electricity suppliers in those countries to buy electricity from German producers. Conversely, it was sensible less often for German electricity suppliers to buy electricity from other countries.

Germany exported the largest amount of electricity to Austria, as in Q1 2025. Exports to the country increased slightly to 4.1 TWh. The largest increases in exports were to Denmark (up 113.4% to 2.3 TWh) and Norway (up 530.9% to 0.8 TWh). By contrast, there was a considerable decrease in electricity exports to France, down by about 50% on Q1 2025 to 0.6 TWh. There were also decreases in exports to Belgium and Switzerland but increases in exports to all other countries.

The largest amount of electricity imported into Germany was from Denmark; imports from the country fell by 29.1% to 3.9 TWh but were still higher than imports from the Netherlands (3.0 TWh, down 14.4%) and France (2.7 TWh, up 2.1%). The biggest change was in imports from Sweden, which fell by 74.4% to 0.2 TWh.

More renewable electricity exported

Onshore wind had the largest share in Germany’s electricity exports among all energy sources.**** A total of 57.1% of all the electricity that Germany exported in Q1 2026 came from renewables, compared with 54.7% in Q1 2025. The shares of the conventional energy sources in total exports all decreased, with the exception of natural gas and “other conventional” sources, which saw slight increases. It is interesting that there was an increase in nearly all the amounts accounted for by the individual energy sources in the energy mix of exports. There were slight decreases only in the amounts of electricity exported from hydropower and “other renewables”.

Renewables’ share in the energy mix of imports rose slightly from 50.0% in Q1 2025 to 50.2% in Q1 2026. Nuclear energy again had the largest share among all energy sources, although there was a small decrease in the amount of imported electricity from nuclear.

Information on how the energy mix of electricity imports and exports is calculated is available here.

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*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.

**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.

***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.

****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.

The figures presented in the charts and in the text may be updated at a later date. Further information about possible updates and data definitions is available (in German) in the user guide.