Commentary: What the best June for wind power in the lull half-year teaches us
In the typically calm June, a physically unfavorable time of year for wind power, onshore and offshore wind turbines generated an electricity feed-in volume of more than ten terawatt hours (TWh) for the first time in the sixth month of the year. The electricity statistics portal Energy-charts.de recorded 10,490.3 gigawatt hours (GWh), or 10.49 TWh.
Until now, wind power generation has only exceeded this statistical threshold in the storm- and breeze-prone autumn, winter, and early spring months. From September to April, and exceptionally even in May, generation has so far swelled significantly into the double-digit TWh range, with feed-in volumes of just over 20 TWh. However, in the warmer, less windy months, which in some years also include May and September, the values sometimes drop to as low as around five or even four TWh. And June, July, and August have reliably alternated with the worst annual values at this low level.
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Last June, onshore wind turbines, with a combined output of 8.64 TWh onshore and 1.85 TWh offshore, fed more green electricity into the power lines than photovoltaics (PV) in the same month for the first time since 2020. This is remarkable, given that PV has experienced particularly strong expansion in recent years. And June is, after all, the midsummer month with the highest sun position. Thus, at 10.27 TWh, the modules generated about 2 TWh more than in the previous two best German PV June harvests of 2024 and 2023. Nevertheless, wind power surpassed PV this time.
The fact that wind power generation surged so much in June 2025 is pure coincidence. Or it could be interpreted as an ironic gesture from nature. In 2024 and 2023, the electricity harvest was either moderately good at best or, as usual, poor. Last year and the year before last, 7.24 and 5.94 TWh were recorded after June 30th, respectively. And 2025 has so far been an extremely windless year, in any case a year of weak wind power: After January, which was quite a year compared to previous January power harvests, still produced 15.38 TWh of wind power, four months followed with wind power outputs ranging from just under seven to barely more than nine terawatt hours.
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June can therefore be considered the first month in which the recent expansion of wind power in recent years led to a massive jump in harvests. The so-called traffic light government of former Chancellor Olaf Scholz, with its red-yellow-green coalition of the SPD, FDP, and the Greens, in line with party colors, had enabled the construction of increasingly large and powerful wind turbines nationwide through its bold renewable energy legislation. Height restrictions were lifted. Some federal states and their courts even immediately cleared existing blockades for projects with state-of-the-art wind turbines. Authorities, empowered with renewed courage, accelerated approvals. In particular, very new wind farm projects were already being implemented because the signals from the federal government were so clear in their favor. And now, apparently, just a slight improvement in wind conditions was enough. This meant that the technically significantly improved wind turbine fleet suddenly generated so much more wind energy.
Nicole Weinhold
The overall green electricity output in June 2025 was also impressive. At 25.82 TWh of electricity from renewable energy sources, sustainable, climate-neutral electricity generation in the country increased by another quarter compared to the same month last year. In June 2024, green electricity generation remained just above the 20 TWh mark; in June of each of the previous years, the industry had only slightly undercut this mark several times. Last month, renewable energy plants, including hydropower, generated four times as much electricity as conventional power plants could or had to contribute. And net electricity imports, which have always been very high since 2023, the first nuclear-free year, fell to just 1.2 TWh in June.
However, this is only the undoubtedly positive statistical part of the June electricity mix results. This also contains a systemic component that provides a wake-up call for action for the industry.
In fact, the new coalition government under current Chancellor Friedrich Merz promised in the coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and SPD that renewables would assume systemic responsibility for electricity generation in the future. The agreement essentially states that the government will create appropriate markets through new laws or individual regulations so that operators of renewable energy plants can market their electricity accordingly. They should also align their expansion plans to best utilize a stable, reliable overall system, for example, in harmony with existing or planned power grid layouts. Likewise, operating concepts should target flexible power feed-in to coordinate generation and consumption and power characteristics, or to regulate feed-in to ensure good, consistent power and voltage frequencies. The coalition partners also want to reduce periods of negative electricity prices through market reforms, encourage the expansion of electricity storage facilities to stabilize and control green electricity feed-in, and promote the conversion of electricity into other energy sources that can be used in the energy consumption sectors of transport and industrial production or for heat supply – especially green hydrogen produced by electrolysis.
However, the federal government is still lacking concrete draft regulations for all these systemic arrangements. Affected stakeholders are already showing impatience: Distribution grid operators are delaying so-called co-location power storage systems, complained one participant at the German Wind Energy Association's monthly digital Policy Briefing last Friday. "Battery storage – lost in regulation," loosely translated as "grid-friendly battery storage lost in incorrect, inconclusive, or non-regulation," was the title given by the legal duo Kerstin Henrich and Sebastian Helmes of the consulting firm Dentons for a presentation on Tuesday at the NRW Industry Day in Neuss, North Rhine-Westphalia. They vividly described the extent to which various, yet at the same time nothing, is actually legally regulated regarding grid-friendly battery use.
The renewable energy sector, and especially its wind energy division, should now use the June results as an opportunity to repeatedly advocate for the reliable supply of green electricity from its generation plants as one of its most important current concerns. If even the weakest months of the year lead to a clear dominance of green electricity thanks to the high generation capacities and advanced technology of wind power and PV, a comprehensive market for all green electricity products and all green electricity system services must be quickly established.
To truly set the tone soon, the green energy industry would have to be able to conduct its own monthly accounting and explain when and why there were shortfalls in the electricity grid, when prices slipped into the negative price zone due to a generation surplus, thus generating revenue for electricity consumption. And why, apart from a lack of wind due to weather or perhaps climate change (?), there was so little wind power in months that would normally be windy – and how a more future-proof design of our energy infrastructure could nevertheless allow for greater use of renewables.
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