New goals for federal states
The traffic light is planning to expand wind power
06/15/2022, 2:32 p.m
According to government plans, two percent of the area in Germany should be available for wind power by 2032 at the latest. In order to achieve the ambitious goal, the cabinet passed a draft law with clear guidelines for the federal states. Vice-Chancellor Habeck points to the economic advantages of the location.
The federal government wants to push ahead with the expansion of wind power on land by law. The cabinet passed the draft of a “wind energy area requirement law”. It is intended to ensure that by 2032 at the latest, two percent of the area in Germany will be available for wind turbines. Area targets are set for each individual federal state.
Brandenburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia are subject to greater obligations – they each have to make 2.2 percent of the area usable for wind power. In contrast, the target for Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland is only 1.8 percent. The other area countries are in between. The city states of Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen have a minimum area of just 0.5 percent of their territory.
According to the draft, the targets must be met by December 31, 2032. An interim target has already been set for the end of 2026. Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck said of the proposed legislation that this would ensure that the expansion progressed again on a large scale. This is central to achieving climate protection goals and becoming less dependent on fossil fuels.
“Only 0.5 percent is actually available”
“Currently, only around 0.8 percent of the federal area is designated for onshore wind energy,” says the justification for the draft law. “Only 0.5 percent is actually available. In addition, the area designations for wind turbines are distributed very unevenly in Germany.”
In order to achieve the newly defined goals, the federal government is also shaking up the state opening clause, which has so far allowed the states to set a minimum distance of up to one kilometer between wind turbines and residential areas. Such clauses should continue to be possible – but the specifications would be “inapplicable in the event that the target is missed”. Achieving the area targets is therefore the priority.
Habeck said he didn’t want to hide the fact that a greater expansion of wind power would also be an impertinence for many people and some regions. Politicians must respond to fears and concerns, but this may lead to a political deadlock and inability to act. Habeck also pointed out the economic importance of wind power: It has now become a location advantage to have renewable energies.
Uniform rules for species protection
A draft amendment to the Federal Nature Conservation Act was also approved by the cabinet. The aim here is to establish uniform national standards for the species protection tests that are prescribed in the approval process for new wind turbines.
In the coalition agreement, the traffic light parties had agreed that “two percent of the country’s land would be designated for wind energy on land”. In addition, “the application of a nationwide assessment method for the species protection assessment of wind energy projects” was announced in it. The drafts that have now been approved by the cabinet serve to flesh out these plans. These are formulation aids for the coalition factions.