Renewable energy reached a new milestone in Germany recently with a record peak of 24.24 gigawatts of electricity produced from solar on June 6 and a record 1.26 terawatt hours generated in the first week of the month. Furthermore, on June 9, a national holiday, 50.6 percent of the total electricity demand in Germany was met briefly with solar power, the highest level ever achieved in Germany.
Germany has knocked the UK off the top spot to take first place in the 2014 International Energy Efficiency Scorecard, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) revealed today.
28.5 percent of the electricity consumed in Germany in the first half of 2014 came from renewable sources, preliminary estimates from the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) show. This is up from 24.6 percent in the same period last year thanks to new installations and favorable weather.
Turnover for games on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers is forecast to rise to EUR 465 million (USD 623 million) in Germany this year, according to the high-tech association BITKOM citing data from the IHS Technology market research institute.
Biotechnology, materials science, and microelectronics were the main beneficiaries of EUR 304 million (USD 407 million) in R&D investment from the European Regional Development Fund and the state of Saxony in the 2007-2013 period.
Germany Trade & Invest is pleased to announce that the 2014/2015 Investment Guide to Germany is now available for download free of charge.
Having too little capital is often an obstacle for very small businesses and new company founders trying to access credit. To increase the range of financing opportunities for such companies, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy launched the 35 million euro German Micro-mezzanine Fund (Mikromezzaninfonds Deutschland) in fall 2013.
The German government has the ambitious aim of meeting 80 percent of electricity demand with renewables by 2050 - a goal that can only be achieved by upgrading power grids.
The German chemical industry invested around 10.5 billion euro (USD 14 billion) in research and development in 2013 - an increase of 8 percent over the previous year.
Germany has maintained its top-5 position in the WEF’s annual competitiveness ranking of 144 countries. The report, released today, called out the country’s highly sophisticated businesses (3rd place), high levels of R&D innovation (6th), high-quality infrastructure (7th), and “top-notch” on-the-job training system (6th) for particular praise.
