Germany is increasingly purchasing electricity from abroad: its imports in 2024 doubled compared to 2019.
As Day.Az reports with reference to TASS, the Bild newspaper writes about this.
The publication noted that Germany produces little electricity at competitive prices, and therefore electricity supplies from neighboring countries, primarily France, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium, are becoming increasingly important for the German market. This year, Germany imported almost 77 thousand GWh of electricity, while exporting only 48.2 thousand GWh abroad.
“Germany is often forced to import electricity from abroad at night, since approximately 100 GW of photovoltaic capacity cannot contribute to our electricity supply at all,” economist Manuel Frondel told the newspaper. In his opinion, the new German government should reconsider the goal of increasing solar energy capacity by 2030.
Bild noted that the situation in the electricity market has changed dramatically after the shutdown of the last nuclear reactor in Germany in April 2023. If before this the country generated enough electricity at favorable prices, which was also in demand abroad, now it has become more profitable to purchase electricity from other countries. France became its main supplier to Germany.
Germany is gradually switching to renewable energy sources, abandoning coal power plants, and shutting down nuclear power plants. It is planned to fully achieve climate neutrality by 2045. Initially, during the transition period, the focus was on Russian energy resources, primarily gas. Germany began to refuse supplies of resources from the Russian Federation after the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.