Positive German Economy Boosted Energy Consumption

Energy consumption in Germany for this year increased due to an optimistic economic development, according to an official report issued by Working Group on Energy Balances (AGEB) on Thursday.

Based on the estimated data, the energy consumed could possibly rise by 0.8 percent in 2017 because of higher demand in the growth of domestic firms output. Some of the major economic research institutes decided to lift their projections for the gross domestic product (GDP), particularly, the Ifo Institute for Economic Research that shows an expected 2.3 percent of expansion for the current year and 2.6 percent in the next.

Although the total energy consumption had surge, the levels of CO2 emission continued to be unchanged since it was mainly driven by changes in the energy landscape of the country. According to AGEB, renewables had an extensive share of national energy production which reaches from 12.5 percent to 13.1 percent over the recent year. This was influenced by a 34 percent increase in electric-generated wind energy. Nevertheless, electricity only entails a small share of the total energy production in the country. Conventional energy sources, on the other hand, continue to prevail.

Also, gas and oil comprise the 60 percent of the annual energy usage for the year, with an annual increase of 3 percent and 5 percent, accordingly. Contrarily, the hard coal consumption had decreased by 10.4 percent and the share for nuclear power shared the same fate, demonstrating 10 percent to 6.1 percent drop. While consumption for brown coal remained unchanged.

Moreover, a study from the Federal Ministry of the Environment advised that German economy would likely weaken due to 40 percent decline of man-made greenhouse emissions until 2020, in case that the present course will continue.