Germany Boosts 8 GW Solar, Wind Capacity in 1st Half

Germany added a record 8 GW of solar and wind power capacity in the first six months of 2023, up around two-thirds year-on-year, think-tank IWR said, based on data from the BNEtzA registry.
The new capacity includes some 6.5 GW of solar energy, up 71% on H1 2022 with the registration of 465,000 new solar assets, S&P Global reported.
New wind capacity was up 77% with 350 turbines and 1.75 GW capacity added, according to IWR.
Of that, some 1.5 GW were onshore wind, while offshore wind accounted for 230 MW new capacity at one project in the Baltic Sea.
IWR did not provide data for wind farm retirements, which in 2022 amounted to 266 MW.
For the full year 2023, IWR estimated some 15 GW of new solar and wind capacity that could boost annual electricity generation by 20 TWh, it said.
Bavaria headed the state-by-stake ranking for solar with almost 1.6 GW added, followed by North Rhine-Westphalia (1 GW) and Baden-Wuerttemberg (0.9 GW), IWR said.
For wind, Schleswig-Holstein led the ranking with 580 MW of new wind, ahead of Lower Saxony (230 MW), North Rhine-Westphalia (200 MW) and Brandenburg (150 MW).
The ranking underlined the North-South regional divide that caused some grid bottlenecks with wind strongest in the North and solar booming in the South.
Capture prices for German wind and solar eased in H1 from record-highs seen in 2022.