Germany Slowly Discards Coal Use in Pursuit of Renewable Energy

Fiscal crisis stricken Germany, by far the eurozone's largest single investor in renewable energy, is all the more getting serious to wipe out its coal usage by 2020.

Europe's high-carbon brown coal, also known as lignite, could well be slowly headed for extinction. Brown coal, an old part of Europe's energy mix, gives off 25 per cent of Germany's total energy mix. Though Germany intends to hold on to it, it is sure to inevitably discard the commodity.

Germany's present energy mix is made up 20 per cent of renewable energy, surpassing nuclear, natural gas and hard coal, according to Bloomberg News.

Top producer is wind, giving 8 per cent of the total, followed by biomass at 5 per cent. Solar and hydro are tied at 3 per cent of the overall total, after Germany instituted policies to deploy photovoltaics quickly the last three years. Last is municipal waste at 1 per cent.

Germany, the largest eurozone economy, is poised to absorb a third of all EU renewable energy investment to 2030.

By region, the eurozone has the most aggressive goals for renewable energy compared with any country or economic bloc. It wants 20 per cent of final energy consumption by 2020 made up of renewable energy. Coal will be barely 10 per cent of the total mix.

In October, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported renewable energy capacity, such as hydroelectric, will expand 2.7 per cent annually through 2035. Of all the identified renewable energy sources, EIA projects solar power to post the biggest growth rate at 8.3 per cent per year, followed by wind at 5.7 per cent, geothermal at 3.7 per cent, hydropower at 2.0 per cent and other renewables such as wood waste, landfill gas and agricultural byproducts at 1.4 per cent cumulative.