Germany, a pioneer in renewables among the advanced industrial economies, now gets 38% of its electricity from renewables.

In the United States the proportion of electricity generated by renewables is only about 20%, about half as much as Germany, because of the opposition to green energy of Big Oil, Big Coal, Big Gas, and increasingly Big Trump (what has he been eating?) Moreover, much of the increase in renewables in the US is very new, with falling solar and wind prices, whereas Germany has been at this for a long time and thus avoided substantial carbon emissions that it would otherwise have produced.

Reuters reminds us that this proportion is higher than that of coal for the first time. It says that of the renewables the mix was this:

“The 38 per cent was made up of onshore wind supplying 16 per cent, offshore wind with 3 per cent, biomass with 8 per cent, photovoltaics with 8 per cent, hydropower with 3 per cent, and waste and geothermal energy supplying 1 per cent.”

Note that hydropower was down 16% this year because of the horrible drought Germany is undergoing, so that the surge of 2% in renewables is all the more remarkable.

via Germany’s Electricity 38% Renewable in 2018, more than Coal for 1st Time