On 7 December 1990, an economic and ecological success story began in Germany that is still going strong. It was the day the German Electricity Feed Act was adopted. As of 1 January 1991, the operators of the German electricity grid were obliged for the first time to include electricity from wind turbines, small-scale hydropower plants, biomass and photovoltaic plants in the grid at a fixed, long-term remuneration rate. The act itself, which consisted of no more than five short articles, had a significant effect in times to come.

Today, wind turbines alone can cover the entire base load of the German electricity grid for a few hours at a time. In 1990, as few as 488 plants with a capacity of 62 MW existed. They generated 0.03% of the entire German electricity supply. At the end of 2009, Germany had close to 21,000 wind turbines with a capacity of 25,777 MW, generating 6.5% of the entire German electricity supply. Photovoltaic systems in 1990 still numbered as few as 138. Today, Germany has more than 400,000 plants with a capacity of close to 10,000 MWp which generate around 1% of the German electricity supply.

Europe is catching up

In 2000, the Electricity Feed Act was replaced by the Renewable Energy Sources Act which has since been subject to several amendments. Today, renewable energy support initiatives are spreading via fixed feed-in tariffs on the European and international level, too. In approx. 40 countries, half of them in Europe, comparable laws apply today.

The capacities contributed by renewable energy to the German electricity supply will keep on growing. Energy research is therefore focussing on a fundamental structural change of the current grid infrastructure towards a “grid of the future”. This involves, for example, low-loss long distance transport of large electricity volumes, such as from offshore wind farms at the North Sea to demand centres in southern Germany. Intensive communication between the electricity generation and the electricity demand sides, so-called smart grids, represent another component of the modernised electricity grid. A further focal point consists of new, higher-performance storage technologies and concepts. Such concepts contribute towards better integration of fluctuating electricity generation from renewable energy sources and cogeneration into the electricity grid.