After strong growth in 2015, there were only minor changes in the share of renewables last year. In fact, the most surprising thing is the change in natural gas. Craig Morris takes a look. The numbers are not just preliminary, but partly forecast. You see, the AGEB, a group of economists and energy sector experts who tally the numbers, published them just before Christmas – before the year was even over. In total, primary energy consumption rose by 1.6 percent, the AGEB explains, due primarily to colder weather and the leap year, which added 0.3 percent of time to 2016. We don’t know the official carbon data yet, but Agora Energiewende estimates that CO2 emissions from electricity fell by 1.6 percent as coal power shrank further, while overall greenhouse gas emissions rose by 0.9 percent because too little progress is being made in the heat and transportation sectors (press release in German). One item shows how great subsequent adjustments can be. Last year’s post on the AGEB’s preliminary data for 2015 assumed that the share … Continue reading Renewable energy production stagnates in Germany in 2016