BERLIN, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Despite moves to phase out coal and nuclear energy in Germany, the use of these sources in electricity generation in the country rose by 11.7 percent year-on-year in 2021.
Conventional energy sources made up 57.6 percent of total electricity generation last year, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on Thursday.
In 2020, wind power was the largest energy source and the first renewable to take the lead. However, in 2021 the situation regressed, with the share of coal-fired electricity rising to 30.2 percent in 2021.
This made coal the most important energy source for electricity generation in Germany that year.
Destatis said that feed-in from all renewable energies fell to 42.4 percent in 2021, mostly due to low winds in the spring.
Total electricity generation was 2.6 percent higher than in the first COVID-19 crisis year, which saw lower economic activity and consequently less demand for energy.
In the wake of Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, Germany accelerated its phase-out of nuclear energy.
The country's last three plants are scheduled to be shut down permanently by the end of 2022 at the latest, intensifying the need to ramp up renewable energy production.
In addition, the country's new government wants to accelerate the coal phase-out. The last units are scheduled to be taken off the grid by 2030, eight years earlier than previously planned. Also by 2030, 80 percent of total electricity is to be generated from renewable sources.
Earlier this week, the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) and the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) said that Germany had missed its climate target, as greenhouse gas emissions increased by 4.5 percent year-on-year in 2021 to around 762 million metric tons.
A "much faster pace in the expansion of renewable energies" is key to lowering emissions, said Patrick Graichen, state secretary for climate action. "We must install three times as much capacity." ■