FACT CHECK | Germany’s largest energy source is wind. Showing the share of wind energy in total primary energy demand is deliberately misleading

A popular claim circulating on Facebook that Germany’s 30,000 wind turbines cover only 3,2 percent of the country’s energy needs is deliberately misleading.„In Germany, approximately 30,000 wind turbines currently cover 3.2% of the energy demand. Long live the green transition,“ Jaanus Härms wrote on his Facebook page on January 12. According to Facebook, his post has been shared at least 120 times.The same claim has been spread by various German-language channels over the past few weeks. For example, it was spread in the Facebook group „The Conservatives / Die Konservativen“ on January 11th.Facts In Germany, 33% of electricity was produced from wind power in 2024, making it the country’s largest energy source.Calculating the entire energy demand through primary energy (e.g. the claimed 3.2% for wind power) is a misleading metric because it does not take into account the large energy losses that occur when processing fossil fuels. There are no such large losses in renewable energy.More primary energy is needed to produce electricity from fossil fuels because, unlike renewable resources, a very large part of the energy is lost during their processing.Wind energy is classified as renewable energy because, unlike fossil fuels such as coal or oil, it is a renewable and fuel-free natural resource.According to the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the share of renewable energy in Germany’s electricity production was 63.4% in the third quarter of 2024. Wind energy accounted for 24.7% of total production in the same period. This is the most recent publicly available data.According to the German Foreign Ministry, the share of renewable energy in Germany’s net public production in 2024 was 62.7%. Wind energy produced a total of 136.4 TWh last year, accounting for 33% of total production.Electricity production from coal, however, fell: lignite production fell by 8.4% to 71.1 TWh, and coal production by 27.6% to 24.2 TWh.Thus, the largest share of electricity in the entire German electricity industry is produced from wind energy. The share of fossil fuels is gradually but steadily falling.Contrary statements about the German energy system are frequent, but they are not true. Germany has not increased its share of fossil fuels in recent years. Germany also does not import a significant part of its electricity from abroad (only around 6% in 2024), and the price of electricity has become cheaper in recent years.Primary energy vs final energyShowing the share of renewable energy (such as wind and solar) in total primary energy is misleading. It does not reflect the real extent of the energy transition. The actual energy demand of a country (such as Germany) and the primary energy production are not the same.Primary energy includes all the energy that enters the system as oil, coal, gas, and other primary sources. This indicator includes all energy losses that mainly occur during the processing and combustion of fossil fuels. For example, when generating electricity from coal, it takes on average three kilowatt-hours of coal energy to produce one kilowatt-hour of electricity. In the case of renewable energy, there are no such energy losses, because solar and wind energy are converted directly into electricity.The German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) reported that primary energy consumption in Germany also fell to a new low in 2024. Compared to the previous year, it fell by 1.3% to 10,478 petajoules (PJ), almost 30% less than in 1990.Renewable energy sources accounted for about 20% of primary energy last year.However, when looking at final energy, these figures are 62.7% (all renewable energy) and 33% (wind energy), respectively.The difference is due to the energy losses associated with the processing of fossil fuels, which is one of the reasons why final energy or useful energy metrics are more suitable for assessing the share of renewable energy, including wind energy.The primary energy metric can show the share of renewable energy as small because it does not take into account the energy losses of fossil fuels, which renewable sources do not have to such an extent. Therefore, such a presentation of data is misleading.Verdict: Misleading. The claim that Germany’s 30,000 wind turbines cover only a few percent of the country’s energy needs is misleading. This figure is likely based on a primary energy indicator, which is not suitable for assessing the share of renewable energy. According to the final energy indicator, wind energy accounted for 33% of Germany’s electricity production in 2024. Presenting the claim in the context of primary energy gives a misleading impression of the real share of wind energy.