Europe / Caspian / CIS
Country profile: Germany
Location: | Central Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, between the Netherlands and Poland, south of Denmark |
Climate: | temperate and marine; cool, cloudy, wet winters and summers; occasional warm mountain (foehn) wind |
Terrain: | lowlands in north, uplands in center, Bavarian Alps in south |
Size: | 357021 sq. km total (Land area: 349223 sq. km Water area: 7798 sq.km) |
Population: | 82,369,548 (July 2008 est.) |
Languages: | German |
Government: | federal republic |
Capital city: | Berlin |
Legal system: | civil law system with indigenous concepts; judicial review of legislative acts in the Federal Constitutional Court; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction |
Currency: | euro (EUR) |
Licensing: |
Country profile
Germany has one of the largest economies in the world, with a 2005 nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.8 trillion. In recent years, economic growth has resumed, after GDP contracted by 0.2 percent in 2003. However, high unemployment and sluggish domestic demand continue to dampen economic growth. Owning to its large economy, Germany is one of the world’s largest energy consumers. In 2004, the country consumed 14.7 quadrillion British Thermal Units (Btu) of total energy, the fifth-largest amount in the world.
Besides coal, Germany does not possess any sizable hydrocarbon reserves, so the country must rely upon imports to meet the majority of its energy needs. The lack of domestic hydrocarbon resources has led Germany to become a world leader in the development of renewable energy technologies, with the country becoming the world’s largest producer of biodiesel and generator of electricity from wind.
As Europe's largest economy and second most populous nation, Germany is a key member of the continent's economic, political, and defense organizations. European power struggles immersed Germany in two devastating World Wars in the first half of the 20th century and left the country occupied by the victorious Allied powers of the US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union in 1945. With the advent of the Cold War, two German states were formed in 1949: the western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR).
The democratic FRG embedded itself in key Western economic and security organizations, the EC, which became the EU, and NATO, while the Communist GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The decline of the USSR and the end of the Cold War allowed for German unification in 1990. Since then, Germany has expended considerable funds to bring Eastern productivity and wages up to Western standards. In January 1999, Germany and 10 other EU countries introduced a common European exchange currency, the euro.
Energy production and consumption
Oil | Gas | |
Production: | 141,700 bbl/day (2005) | 19 billion cu m (2005 est.) |
Consumption: | 2 million bbl/day (2005 est.) | 96 billion cu m (2005 est.) |
Exports: | 518,700 bbl/day (2004) | 9 billion cu m (2005 est.) |
Imports: | 2 million bbl/day (2004) | 86 billion cu m (2005 est.) |
Reserves: | 367 million bbl (1 January 2006 est.) | 246 billion cu m (1 January 2006 est.) |
Major fields: |
Germany - recent news
15 Sep 25 |
Germany: ENERCON moves into the future of networked energy generation with Wind+ Storage ENERCON is providing an attractive end-to-end approach combining wind farm with battery energy storage system for the next phase of the German energy transition. |
11 Sep 25 |
Germany: Vattenfall commissions Germany's largest Agri-PV Park Tützpatz, Germany’s largest combined solar and agricultural farm has been inaugurated. In partnership with Deutsche Telekom it will combine power generation with arable farming and animal husbandry on a total area of 93 hectares. |
09 Sep 25 |
Germany: Innovative environmental monitoring launched at RWE's Kaskasi offshore wind farm RWE’s Kaskasi offshore wind farm has set a milestone: for the first time in Europe, a drone equipped with a high-resolution camera system was used for offshore environmental monitoring. This technique is a low CO2-emission, and less intrusive alternative to traditional methods of observing birds and marine mammals, which are based on airplanes and ships. |
09 Sep 25 |
France/Germany: SHS Group and Verso Energy sign groundbreaking hydrogen contract The SHS - Stahl-Holding-Saar Group (SHS Group) has concluded a long-term contract with energy company Verso Energy for the annual supply and purchase of at least 6,000 tons of 'green' hydrogen. |
08 Sep 25 |
Germany: Vestas announces 86 MW order in Germany Vestas has secured an 86 MW order in Germany as part of its Q3 order intake. Delivery planned to begin in Q3 2026, with commissioning scheduled to begin in Q1 2027. |
Germany - more news
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