Power generated this year by onshore and offshore wind in Germany exceeded the amount of electricity coming from hard coal and nuclear plants for the first time, the Fraunhofer ISE institute said.

German coal plant operators choked generation from hard coal plants in favor of cheaper-to-run lignite units this year and nuclear power operators kept plants like Grundremmingen B, which were offline for extended periods, Bruno Burger, a professor at Freiburg-based Fraunhofer ISE, said.

Lignite generation rose 0.3 percent to about 117 terawatt-hours so far this year, highlighting the addiction of utilities to one of the cheapest and dirtiest forms of energy, said Burger. Hard coal generation dropped 14 percent to 69.3 terawatt-hours, he said.

Onshore and offshore wind power has an installed capacity of about 54 gigawatts -- outstripping all other main sources of power capacity. About 46 percent of Germany's generation came from wind farms on Thursday, according to Wind Power Europe.

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