healthier, happier and richer

Total national greenhouse gas emissions as a percentage of global total, 2004 figures

1%

Historical contribution – 1850 to 2000

7%

Change in annual greenhouse gas emissions since 1990

- 19.3%

2005 per capita annual greenhouse gas emissions

11.9 tonnes

Energy used per unit of GDP (compared to USA)

75%

Balance of energy sources, 2009

Energy security

Despite a high level of domestic production, Germany imports significant amounts of energy: all its oil (mainly from Russia and Norway), a significant proportion of its gas (from Russia, Norway and the Netherlands) and some coal (from Poland, South Africa, Russia and several other countries). Energy import dependence is higher than the EU-27 average. Imported energy has increased 30% since 1990.

Electricity generated in 2009

Installed wind capacity

2002                           12 Gw

2004                           16.6 Gw

2006                           20.6 Gw

2008                          23.9 Gw

2009                           25.8 Gw

Installed solar capacity

“Germany remains the world’s top PV installer, accounting for almost half of the global market in 2007. Thanks to the country’s feed-in tariff for renewable electricity, which requires utilities to pay customers a guaranteed rate for any renewable power they feed into the grid, Germans installed about 1,300 megawatts of new PV capacity, up from 850 megawatts in 2006, for a total exceeding 3,830 megawatts. As capacity has risen, PV installed system costs have been cut in half in Germany between 1997 and 2007. PVs now meet about 1 percent of Germany’s electricity demand, a share that some analysts expect could reach 25 percent by 2050.”

(See World Watch Institute: Another Sunny Year for Solar Power.)

Electricity – supply and demand

Germany generates more electricity than it consumes, so exports electricity to other European countries.

Electricity consumption in Germany declined 1.75% in 2006, but increased by 2.8% in 2007 and by 4.7% in 2008 (see index mundi: Germany Electricity – consumption).

Fuel used for heat 2009

Percentage of agriculture certified as organic

4.52%

Cars per thousand of population

539