Weak winds during most of the year had resulted in mid-December 2013 predictions of just 46TWh.
But recent winter storms saw output soar, according to Spider-Energy analysis of German energy exchange EEX end-of-year data.
On 24th December 2013 German wind output reached its second highest ever at 0.54TWh after the record 0.57TWh on 6th December 2013. Wind generation in December 2013 alone reached 7.45TWh compared with 5.58TWh in December 2012.
Germany's 2013 wind generation was equivalent to 8% of German electricity consumption in 2013 which clocked up at 596TWh, according to German energy and water federation BDEW. This compared with 607TWh in 2012 when wind took a 7.6% share.
Despite the lower consumption, energy incumbents EnBW, E.on, RWE and Vattenfall ran their fossil-fuelled plants at high output resulting in massive exports of 33TWh in 2013 (as estimated by AG Energiebilanzen, 12 December 2013) compared with 23TWh in 2012, and just 6.2TWh in 2011.
