The operators of coal-fired power plants such as RWE or Uniper fed significantly more electricity into the grid in Germany in the first half of the year.

Compared to the same period last year, the generation of hard coal and lignite power plants increased by 35.5 percent to 70.2 billion kilowatt hours, the Federal Statistical Office announced on Monday.

With a share of 27.1 percent, coal was the largest single item despite the phasing out of climate-damaging production.

Due to the frequent lulls, however, wind turbines recorded a decrease of 21 percent to 57 billion kilowatt hours and thus fed in as little as last in the first half of 2018. The share of wind turbines in the total fell by seven points to 22.1 percent.

In the course of the energy transition, the nuclear power plants in this country are to be shut down by the end of 2022 and the coal-fired power plants by 2038.

Renewable energies such as wind, photovoltaics and biogas should play an increasingly important role.

However, their production fluctuates greatly due to the dependence on the weather.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, conventional power plants - mainly coal, gas and nuclear energy - still covered 56 percent of demand from January to the end of June.