According to Fraunhofer ISE‘s figures, solar energy systems and wind turbines together fed about 92.6 terawatt hours (TWh) into the public grid in the first half of 2019 (80.1 TWh in the first half of 2018). This makes them the leading sources of electricity, generating significantly more electricity than lignite and hard coal combined (79.4 TWh). Electricity production from lignite fell by 20.7%, while that from hard coal fell by 23.7%.

Wind energy was the leading source of energy for the first time when considered over the first half of the year. Solar energy nevertheless took over the lead in June (7.17 TWh) ahead of lignite (7.02 TWh) and wind (6.59 TWh). Solar, wind, water and biomass generated a total of about 127.4 TWh in the first half of 2019, putting renewable energies about 6.7% above the level of last year (119.4 TWh). Their share of net public electricity generation, i.e. the electricity mix that actually comes out of the socket, is about 47%, while that of gross electricity generation is about 41%. Gross generation also includes own generation by industry (manufacturing, mining and quarrying companies) and internal losses by conventional power plants.