Solar and wind set new record in Germany in March

Wind and PV power systems installed in Germany produced approximately 12.5 billion kWh in March. This is the largest production from wind and solar energy sources ever registered in the country, according to provisional numbers released by research institute Internationale Wirtschaftsforum Regenerative Energien (IWR).

These numbers are based on data from the ENTSO-E Transparency Platform, which provides free access to pan-European electricity market data for all users. The previous record set by solar and wind was registered in December 2015, with approximately 12.4 billion kWh of power generated.

Aggregate production from both sources in March was up 50% from March 2016 and 10% from February 2017. This growth was mainly driven by PV. In fact, PV saw its production increase 35% year-on-year and 118% month-on-month to 3.3 billion kWh.

The IWR stressed that these data are related only to electricity network at the feeding point and that were self-consumption included the power output from solar would be even higher.

Wind power production totaled 9.3 billion kWh in March, a slight decrease from the previous month, and a 54% growth compared to March 2016. On March 18, however, wind power plants achieved a new record with 38,000 MW of injected power. The previous record, set on February 22, was 37,500 MW.