Combining the installed capacities with the actual generation, I calculated the onshore wind capacity factors for Germany going back to 2020. Below are the results.
Year Capacity Factor
2020 21.7%
2021 18.7
2022 19.5
2023 22.2
2024 20.2
2025 18.2
This compares to about 34% overall capacity factor for wind in the US. Almost all of the installed wind capacity in the US is on-shore.
Solar capacity factor in Germany averages around 10% for the entire year (even lower in the winter months.) This compares to 24% average in the US. A northern, often cloudy country in Europe like Germany is not the best place to install a lot of solar panels.
Building an electric grid centered on generation technologies that have capacity factors of 20% and 10% is not a good plan, in my opinion. Hence, Germany still operates a large amount of dispatchable and reliable fossil power such as coal and natural gas. That is not a workable plan to get to zero carbon, if that is what you want to do.
_ Pete