For the first time in German history, the two strongest net electricity producers feeding the public grid were wind and solar — in that order. Lignite (Braunkohle), for decades the backbone of German power generation, dropped to third place.
This is not a projection. It is what actually happened in 2025.
The new top two
Wind power remained the single largest source of public net electricity at 132 TWh, even though production fell 3.2 percent compared to the previous year due to weaker wind conditions. Onshore wind contributed about 106 TWh, offshore about 26 TWh.
Photovoltaics came in second with roughly 71 TWh fed into the public grid (87 TWh total, including 16.9 TWh of self-consumption). That is a 21 percent increase over 2024 — enough to overtake lignite for the first time.
Lignite, meanwhile, produced 67.2 TWh for the public grid, down 3.9 TWh from the previous year. Its gross output fell to the level last seen in 1961.
Let that sink in: wind and solar are now both ahead of lignite. The energy source that once seemed untouchable has been overtaken — not by one, but by two renewable competitors.
55.9 percent renewable — but stagnating
Renewables as a whole — solar, wind, hydro, biomass, and geothermal — produced about 278 TWh in 2025, of which 256 TWh were fed into the public grid. Their share of the public power mix remained at 55.9 percent, unchanged from 2024.
That sounds stable. But it should be growing. The target for 2025 was 346 TWh of renewable net generation. The actual number fell far short.
The main reason: the expansion of wind power is significantly behind schedule. Germany aimed for 76.5 GW of installed wind capacity by end of 2025 — only 68.1 GW were actually in place. The shortfall hurts disproportionately: each missing gigawatt of onshore wind translates to roughly double the missing energy, for offshore wind about 3.5 times, due to their higher capacity factors.
Solar is a European story
The surge in solar is not a German anomaly. Across the EU, photovoltaic production reached 275 TWh in 2025 — exceeding the combined output of lignite and hard coal (243 TWh) for the first time. In ten years, EU solar output has tripled. Coal generation has declined by 60 percent over the same period.
Germany installed about 16.2 GW of new solar capacity in 2025, bringing the total to 116.8 GW. To meet climate targets, this pace needs to increase to 22 GW in 2026.
Fossil generation: flat, not falling
The overall story of fossil fuels in 2025 is one of stagnation, not decline. While lignite dropped, hard coal rose slightly to 26.7 TWh and natural gas climbed to 52.4 TWh for public supply (plus 26.1 TWh of industrial self-consumption).
The net effect: total CO₂ emissions from electricity generation remained at roughly 160 million tonnes — the same as 2024. That is 58 percent below 1990 levels, but the year-over-year progress has stalled.
Emissions from coal burning actually rose by 4 percent compared to the previous year — a reminder that declining lignite can be offset by rising hard coal and gas.
Battery storage: the quiet revolution
One of the most dynamic developments of 2025 happened in battery storage. Large-scale battery capacity grew from 2.3 GWh to 3.7 GWh over the year — a 60 percent increase. Including home batteries, total installed storage reached about 25 GWh.
High intraday price swings make storage profitable, and falling battery costs (driven by EV scaling) make investment attractive. The Fraunhofer ISE models project a need for 100 to 170 GWh of storage by 2030.
As Leonhard Gandhi, project lead for Energy-Charts at Fraunhofer ISE, put it: “With the ramp-up of large-scale battery storage, the way the German electricity system functions is changing fundamentally.”
Imports down, prices up
Germany imported 76.2 TWh and exported 54.3 TWh, resulting in a net import surplus of 21.9 TWh — down 6.4 TWh from 2024. Lower gas prices encouraged more domestic gas-fired generation, reducing the need for imports.
The average day-ahead wholesale electricity price rose to 86.55 €/MWh (8.65 ct/kWh), up about 11 percent from the previous year.
The milestone that matters
Numbers are easy to lose in the noise. So here is the one that matters most:
In 2025, both wind and solar produced more electricity for the German public grid than lignite.
This has never happened before. Lignite — the dirtiest, most CO₂-intensive fossil fuel — is no longer Germany’s second-strongest power source. It is not even third. It is behind two technologies that produce electricity without burning anything at all.
The energy transition is not happening fast enough. The targets are being missed, the expansion is lagging, and emissions have stopped falling. But the structural shift is real. The old order is crumbling — slowly, unevenly, but unmistakably.
Wind and solar are no longer challengers. They are the new default.
Data based on the Fraunhofer ISE press release of 1 January 2026 and the Energy-Charts slide deck.