Renewable Energy

Renewable Energy

Renewable Energy

Renewable energies or regenerative energies are energy sources that are practically inexhaustible or renew themselves relatively quickly within the human time horizon. This distinguishes them from fossil fuels, which are finite or only regenerate over millions of years. In addition to greater energy efficiency, renewable energies are regarded as the most important pillar of a sustainable energy policy and the German energy revolution. These include bioenergy (biomass), geothermal energy, hydropower, ocean energy, solar energy and wind energy. By far the most important energy source is the sun. This includes geothermal energy and wind energy.

A self-sufficient complete supply of Germany with renewable energies from domestic sources alone seems possible in principle, even if many scenarios provide for a complementary gas infrastructure and electricity imports from neighbouring countries, as this increases supply security and reduces the necessary storage requirements.

In particular, electricity generation costs for renewable energies such as wind power and photovoltaics have fallen sharply in recent decades. Meanwhile, wind turbines and solar projects can be realised in various countries at favourable conditions without financial support.

Germany is failing to meet its CO2 reduction targets for 2020, partly because CO2-free power generation in nuclear power plants is increasingly being replaced by coal and lignite power plants.