In 2009 Germany was able to decrease CO2 emissions per capita by around 23 percent in
comparison to 1990s levels.1 At the same time, the country increased total final energy
consumption from renewable sources fivefold in just twenty years (from 1.9 percent in 1990
to 10.9 percent in 2010).2 Currently renewable energy sources account for a tenth of total final
energy consumption, mostly biomass (7.7 percent), wind (1.5 percent), and hydropower (0.8
percent). Germany has 44 percent of the world’s existing solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity and the
third biggest wind capacity in the world, after China and the US (figure 83).