The landscape of the renewable electricity supply - Municipal contributions to Germany's energy transition

• Published in: Renewable energy 2025-02, Vol.240, p.122172, Article 122172
• Main Authors: Manske, David, Lehneis, Reinhold, Thrän, Daniela
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electricity consumption; Energy transition; Renewable electricity production; Renewable energy landscapes; Spatial analysis
• ISSN: 0960-1481
• DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2024.122172

Germany has made significant progress towards a renewable and climate-neutral energy system at the federal and state levels, but there is a lack of information on the local use of renewable electricity. To assess the decentralized contributions of renewable electricity to local and total gross electricity consumption, and to gain insight into how the renewable electricity landscape are evolving on the ground, a method was developed to balance renewable electricity generation and gross electricity consumption at the municipal level on an annual basis. A rural-urban and a north-south divide was identified in renewable electricity generation and gross electricity consumption. Municipalities with a population density of more than 100 inhabitants per km2, which represent about 88 % of the total population in Germany, will cover only 22 % of their gross electricity consumption with locally generated renewable electricity in 2019. The majority of renewable electricity is produced in sparsely populated regions, mostly in the northern and eastern parts of Germany, far from the southern and western centers of electricity consumption. The approach developed thus provides comprehensive insights into local contributions to the energy transition and enables detailed monitoring and assessment of renewable energy development and utilization based on population and land area data.