Electricity consumption (grid load*) in Q2 2026 totalled 109.5 TWh, up 1.5% on Q2 2025 (107.9 TWh). The residual load was up 4.3% on Q2 2025 at 53.2 TWh, as the overall share of conventional sources in generation was higher.

Highest quarterly solar photovoltaic generation

Actual generation** was 1.3% up on Q2 2025 at 103.9 TWh (Q2 2025: 102.5 TWh). Renewables’ share of generation was 66.4%, which was slightly less than in Q2 2025 (67.7%) but the second highest to date.

As in Q2 2025, solar PV*** had the largest share of actual generation (30.6%). The absolute level of generation of 31.8 TWh was the highest in any quarter so far and 6.9% higher than the previous record of 29.7 TWh from Q2 2025. Installed solar PV capacity reached 103.3 GW, up more than 15 GW on Q2 2025. In addition, this year’s second quarter was unusually sunny (DWD).

By contrast, onshore wind generation decreased by 12.0%. Onshore wind had achieved a record second-quarterly high of 22.4 TWh in Q2 2025, which had been very windy; this year, the level of 19.7 TWh was similar to Q2 2023.

The remaining renewable energy sources recorded increases in generation of just over 1% and levels similar to Q2 2025, with the exception of “other renewables” with a decrease of 1.1%.

Generation from lignite was down 0.2% at 13.1 TWh but still accounted for the largest share among conventional energy sources. Generation from hard coal was up 23.5% at 5.7 TWh, representing the largest percentage increase among all energy sources. Generation using natural gas was 6.8% higher at 9.8 TWh.

Large increases in wholesale electricity prices across Europe

The average day-ahead wholesale electricity price was €95.21/MWh, up 36.5% on Q2 2025 (€69.73/MWh). There was a similar development in all of Germany’s neighbouring countries. Only three of the countries had average wholesale prices lower than Germany.

The main reason for the development was the large increase in wholesale gas prices, which were around 25% higher in Q2 2026 than a year earlier. In addition, as mentioned above, more electricity was produced using natural gas and conventional sources in general. Wholesale prices generally fluctuated more than in Q2 2025. There were several surges in prices on the day-ahead market, which had noticeable effects on the average wholesale price. Wholesale prices were above €100/MWh in 5,168 out of 8,736 quarter-hours in Q2 2026, compared with 2,496 quarter-hours in Q2 2025.

High wholesale prices during heatwave

Wholesale prices were extremely high on several days during the heatwave that lasted from 18 to 30 June and affected large parts of Europe. 76 of the 86 quarter-hours in Q2 2026 in which the day-ahead price was above €300/MWh were in June and 68 in the heatwave. Prices above €100/MWh were recorded in 873 quarter-hours during the heatwave period. The lowest price in this period was negative €0.92/MWh.

The average wholesale price between 18 and 30 June was €131.24/MWh and higher than the average for the whole quarter. Prices for peak products – electricity purchases on the wholesale market for between 8am and 7.45pm – averaged €88.16/MWh. During these hours, electricity demand is usually higher but at the same time more electricity is usually fed in by solar PV. The average price for off-peak products – electricity purchases for between 8pm and 7.45am – was €174.32/MWh.

The highest day-ahead wholesale price was recorded on 24 June between 8.45pm and 9pm and was €747.10/MWh. These high prices were caused by a combination of various factors.

High wholesale prices are generally correlated with a high residual load. This is the grid load not covered by wind or solar PV generation, whose marginal costs are near zero. A high residual load therefore means that more electricity is fed in by power plants with higher marginal costs, which makes the wholesale price increase overall.

During the extreme weather, the residual load was comparatively high in the evenings because the grid load was higher due to the demand for electricity for cooling. This demand was met during the day by solar PV generation, but this decreased in the evenings. At the same time, only a small amount of electricity was fed in by wind power plants. As a result, the residual load increased at sunset, in some cases to over 50 GW. This is high, but not extreme. During several “dunkelflaute” periods in November 2025, the residual load was as much as about 64 GW, but prices were lower.

In these cases, power plant availability and operating schedules play a role. In November 2025, for example, more conventional power plants were available to cover the residual load. Maintenance work on power plants is generally carried out more often in the summer as electricity demand is lower and solar PV generation is higher and the economic conditions for conventional power plants are less favourable than in the winter.

Continuous operation in the summer does not make sense for many conventional power plants, as wholesale prices around midday are lower than in winter because of the generally high level of solar PV generation. Conventional power plants are therefore often only powered up in the evenings. The costs of ramping a power plant up and down have to be refinanced in the few hours in which the plant is operational and are priced in by the plant operator.

Large falls in prices to below zero as well

Negative wholesale prices occurred less frequently: the number of quarter-hours with negative prices in Q2 2026 was 1,006, compared with 1,380 in Q2 2025.

On Friday 1 May between 1.15pm and 2.30pm, prices in Germany and in other European countries were particularly low. At that time, the sky was almost cloudless throughout Europe, which resulted in a high level of solar PV generation in the whole of the internal electricity market. As 1 May is a public holiday in most European countries, electricity demand across Europe was low.

Electricity exports increase more than imports

Germany’s electricity exports totalled 14.2 TWh in Q2 2026, 15.6% more than in Q2 2025, while electricity imports rose slightly by 1.3% to 18.1 TWh. This resulted in a balance of net imports of 3.9 TWh, which is 30.2% lower than in Q2 2025 (5.6 TWh).
Germany exported the largest amount of electricity (3.2 TWh) to Denmark, as in Q2 2025, followed by the Netherlands (2.8 TWh) and Austria (1.6 TWh). The largest increase in exports was to the Netherlands. Exports to the country rose by 122%, resulting in a balance of net exports, unlike in Q2 2025.

The largest amount of electricity imported to Germany was also from Denmark (4.1 TWh), followed by France (2.4 TWh), the Netherlands (2.4 TWh) and Switzerland (2.1 TWh). There was a particularly large increase in imports from Czechia, up 105.4% to 1.6 TWh.

Solar PV had the largest share in Germany’s electricity exports among all energy sources, with 37.1%. A total of 74.7% of all the electricity that Germany exported in Q2 2026 came from renewables, nearly the same as in Q2 2025 (74.9%).

Renewables’ share in imports fell slightly from 54.8% in Q2 2025 to 52.7%. There was a decrease for hydropower and nuclear, which had the largest shares, but an increase in particular in the shares of natural gas, lignite, solar PV and biomass.
Information on how the energy mix of electricity imports and exports is calculated is available here.

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

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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.