The solar gold of 68 terawatt hours in North Rhine-Westphalia

Published on: August 21, 2020 / Updated on: August 22, 2020 – Author: Konrad Wolfenstein

Photovoltaics in North Rhine-Westphalia – @shutterstock | brichuas

Nationwide, around one in ten terawatt hours of electricity from renewable energies comes from North Rhine-Westphalia, according to the State Agency for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection (LANUV).

• With over 288,000 renewable energy installations and a capacity of 23.3 terawatt-hours, renewable energy sources supplied over 16 percent of North Rhine-Westphalia's electricity consumption in 2019. This amount alone could completely power Bremen, Hamburg, and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

• The approximately eleven million rooftops in North Rhine-Westphalia have an estimated potential for 68 terawatt-hours of solar power. So far, only about 4 terawatt-hours have been realized, representing just three percent of the current electricity consumption in North Rhine-Westphalia.

• Particularly high potential for solar power generation exists in densely populated regions such as Cologne, Düsseldorf, and the Ruhr area. Realizing this potential could result in savings of approximately 30 million tons of CO2. This corresponds to roughly ten percent of North Rhine-Westphalia's current greenhouse gas emissions.

• The largest increase in installed capacity, approximately 470 megawatts, was recorded in the photovoltaic sector last year. This marks the fourth consecutive year that photovoltaic capacity has exceeded the previous year's increase.

“Photovoltaics has a major advantage: I can generate electricity exactly where it is consumed,” explained LANUV President Dr. Thomas Delschen. “In particular, rooftop installations do not occupy or seal any additional land. This is especially important in North Rhine-Westphalia, as we, in Germany’s most densely populated state, have to deal with conflicts over open space. And it is precisely on these many rooftops that a huge, untapped potential lies dormant, with which many more terawatt-hours of solar power could be produced. ”

“With the North Rhine-Westphalia solar cadastre, it is possible to obtain reliable information for every roof in North Rhine-Westphalia about the expected energy and financial returns of a solar power system,” explained LANUV President Delschen. “The integration of storage systems and electric vehicles is also possible for calculating the performance of a photovoltaic system.” The approximately 3,700 wind turbines in North Rhine-Westphalia continue to generate by far the largest share of renewable electricity. Last year, this amounted to a total of 11.6 terawatt-hours. This corresponds to eight percent of the total electricity consumption in North Rhine-Westphalia and thus about half of the electricity generated from renewable sources. In 2019, 37 new wind turbines with a capacity of 125 MW were installed. This reflects the downward trend in wind power generation across Germany.

The facts from North Rhine-Westphalia:

• Electricity generation from renewable energy sources increased by around 660 gigawatt hours (GWh) from 2018 to 2019

• This increase, at 425 GWh, comes largely from photovoltaics, followed by bioenergy and wind

• Photovoltaics has thus exceeded the previous year's installations for the fourth year in a row

• In 2019, 281,959 rooftop PV systems and 355 ground-mounted PV systems produced 4.8 TWh of electricity

• PV thus contributed 3.3% to electricity consumption

• 3,708 wind turbines produced 11.6 TWh of electricity in 2019

• Wind energy thus contributed 8.1% to electricity consumption; it is currently the largest source of renewable energy

• 1,686 biomass, sewage gas and landfill gas plants produced 5.9 TWh of electricity in 2019

• Bioenergy thus contributed 4.2% to electricity consumption

• Electricity generation from hydropower contributed 0.4% to electricity consumption

• Electricity generation from mine gas plants contributed 0.3% to electricity consumption

Share of renewable energies in electricity consumption in North Rhine-Westphalia:

• Münster 44%
• Detmold 34.4%
• Arnsberg 21.6%
• Cologne 11%
• Düsseldorf 8.6%
• RVR 8%

Share of photovoltaics in electricity consumption in North Rhine-Westphalia:

• Münster 9.1%
• Detmold 6.1%
• Arnsberg 4.3%
• Düsseldorf 2.4%
• Cologne 2.2%
• RVR 1.6%

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