Summary

Energy demand, structure of energy sources and efficiency of energy use in the Federal Republic of Germany depends on many internal and external factors. Beside a seasonal and climatic dependency the population, the number of households, motor vehicles and particularly the volume of industrial production are of significant influence on energy demand. Primary energy supply bases on a broad mixture of different energy sources. Traditionally the share of fossil fuels is still dominating. Essential portions of the fossil fuels have to be imported from abroad. Medium- term phasing out of nuclear energy is a declared political goal of the German government. Simultaneously, an extensive introduction of renewable energy techniques is intended. Today, Germany's legislation for promoting renewable energy can be characterized as worldwide exemplary. Additional technical and economic efforts contribute considerably to the reduction of energy demand on all levels of public life. In this regard the future- oriented German energy policy is also an inherent and reliable part of the international obligations for global climate protection. Business turnover, employment rate and investments assign the energy sector a profound economic importance.

Energy market

Primary energy consumption decreased with the beginning of the 90ies despite general economic growth. Here the situation in Germany differs fundamentally in comparison to other industrial countries. The reason for this trend is the continuous improvement of energy efficiency in Germany. Fossil fuels (mineral oil, coal, natural gas) still have a share of 84 percent in primary energy consumption. Nuclear energy represents almost 13 percent. The share of 3 percent contributed by renewable energy sources is relatively small. According to the governmental goals of energy policy the rate of renewable energy is to be increased up to nearly 5 percent till 2010 and 50 percent till 2050. This will also be the only way to overcome the high grade of Germany's dependency on imports of fossil fuels in particular crude oil, natural gas and hard coal. Over the last years wind energy has become the most rapidly growing sector. Currently the installed capacity of more than 14,000 wind turbines can meet nearly 5 percent of the national electricity demand. By advancements in legislation more competition is going to be promoted at the energy market. Conventional local and regional monopoly for energy suppliers will be broken for the benefit of other suppliers and consumers.

Legal situation

Different legal foundations and directives with general and specific character regulate energy industry. Lots of special standards and regulations engage architects, planners and users to act in an energy- saving way in all sectors of public and private life. Legally founded governmental support programmes provide an additional economic incentive for efficient energy generation and application.

Especially the "Renewable Energy Sources Act" stimulates the desired accelerated and widespread introduction of all kinds of renewable energy. By virtue of law appropriate local electricity suppliers and grid operators are obliged to purchase all electricity produced by renewable sources to a legally fixed price. Regional Planning Act generally regulates spatial coordination of wind turbines. Regional and local planning authorities can restrict wind energy utilisation by defining "Suitable areas" if other spatial demands are observed. Permission procedure is also specified by law and depends on the size of wind power plants. Local building authorities will permit plants of one or two generators. Larger projects require a permission procedure according to the "Federal Pollution Control Act". In general environmental impact assessment is mandatory for 3 plus turbine projects.

Acceptance among the population

Renewable energy sources are widely accepted as an environmentally sound, clean and future- oriented technology. The general approval with the further extension of wind energy utilisation is as large as never in Germany. Antagonists argue the extension of subsidised wind energy could cause price increase for electricity and the characteristics of landscapes could be damaged substantially. Responsible and accurate regional and local planning, broad public involvement and an upcoming public understanding for future- oriented energy technology can alleviate specific fears, arguments and opinions against wind energy.

Impacts in the economy

Wind energy is one of the most rapidly growing industrial branches in Germany. Wind energy industry and secondary branches have created almost 40,000 existing jobs up to now. Another 30,000 new jobs will be expected by upcoming offshore wind energy techniques. Turnover in the branch reached 3.5 billion €. Present export rate of 20 percent is expected to increase up to 70 percent in near future.

Problems

Above average growth of wind energy branch is expected to slow down over the next years because of limited availability of land- based operating sites.

Statistics

Energy production

Total energy production (2000):
  Portion hard coal: 13,5%
  Portion brown coal: 10,9%
  Portion natural gases: 21,3%
  Portion mineral oil: 38,6%
  Portion nuclear power: 13,1%
  Portion water and wind: 0,7%
  Portion others: 1,8%
  Portion energy-ex-/import-balance: 0,1%

Energy consumption

Electric power consumption (2000) in petajoule: 14.180
Among this:
  Hard coal: 1920
  Brown coal: 1547
  Natural gas: 3025
  Mineral oil: 5478
  Nuclear energy:1849
  Water and wind: 106
  Others: 246
  Energy export/import-balance: 9

Wind energy:

Wind energy converters (2002): 353
Accumulated wind energy converters (2002): 11.791
Power of the wind energy converters (2002): 458
Accumulated power of the wind energy converters (2002): 9.212
Price for wind energy current per kW: 8,9 €Cent