Germany imported electricity at a cost of €5.7 billion in 2023, offset by export revenues of €3.5 billion, pushing Europe’s largest economy into a negative electricity trade balance for the first time in years, the newspaper reported, citing data by the Federal Network Agency.

Some 54 terawatts, around 11% of total German electricity consumption, was imported in 2023, while exports amounted to 42 terawatts, the agency said.

A rise in wholesale electricity imports from neighbouring countries lowered German consumer power prices, the agency said, adding that Germany had sufficient generation capacity to cover its needs.

“If electricity was imported, it was because the electricity was cheaper abroad,” a spokesperson for the agency told Augsburger Allgemeine.

Germany pulled the plug on its last three nuclear power stations last March, ending a six-decade programme, as Berlin enacts its plan for fully renewable electricity generation by 2035.

The jump in electricity imports also helped slash German coal-fired power generation and greenhouse emissions last year, putting the country on track to reach its climate goals for 2030 of cutting emissions by 65% compared with 1990 and becoming carbon neutral by 2045.