The transport sector is the sector with the lowest share of renewable energy sources. Biodiesel accounted for the largest share of renewable energy consumption in transport in 2022.
BMWK. (February 28, 2023). Final energy consumption from renewables in the transport sector in Germany in 2022 by energy source (in gigawatt hours) [Graph]. In Statista. Accessed July 20, 2023, from https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/156694/umfrage/verbrauch-von-biokraftstoffen-nach-art-in-deutschland-2008/
Statista 2023
Compared to the electricity and heating sectors, the share of renewable energies in transport has so far been significantly lower, the Federal Environment Agency states. Including electricity consumption from renewable energies in rail and road transport, the share would have been 6.8% in 2022. In this context, the use of biofuels in transport is largely determined by the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction quota set by law. In 2022, biofuel sales were roughly at the same level as in 2021, despite the increase in the GHG quota from 6% to 7%. Although sales of biodiesel fell, this was "partially" offset by increased consumption of bioethanol, he said. "More green power in the electricity mix and growth in electromobility caused the use of renewable electricity in transport to increase significantly, but because more fossil fuel was also used, the share of renewable energy in transport remains the same compared to the previous year," the Federal Environment Agency said.
The Most Important Biofuel is Biodiesel
A total of 40.4 billion kWh of energy from renewable sources was used in transportation in 2022, the agency said. This corresponds to a slight increase of just under 2%, it said. About 6.1 billion kWh of electricity from renewable sources was used in transport in 2022, up 16% from the previous year, it said. In contrast, the volume of biofuels used had stagnated at 34.3 billion kWh (2021: 34.5 billion kWh). The most important biofuel was biodiesel with 24.5 billion kWh, followed by bioethanol with 8.7 billion kWh. Biomethane (1.1 billion kWh) and vegetable oil (0.02 billion kWh) would contribute comparatively little to the total volume of biofuels.
According to the Federal Environment Agency, total electricity consumption in the transport sector in 2022 was around 13.3 billion kWh - of which around 6.1 billion kWh was provided by renewable energy sources. Despite the growing share of renewable electricity, it only contributes about 1 % to total energy consumption in the transport sector, and almost 90 % of it has so far been used in rail transport.
