No new minimum distances
Federal government wants to freeze state rules for wind power
05/12/2022 10:37 am
The traffic light wants wind turbines to be on two percent of German soil. Due to different distance regulations, the federal states have so far only allocated 0.8 percent of their areas for expansion. The federal government wants to take this competence away from them.
The federal government wants to revoke the right of the federal states to set new distance rules for wind turbines. This is reported by the “Bild” newspaper. Accordingly, a new draft bill for the amendment of the building code says: “The previous state opening clause (…) for the introduction of state minimum distances for projects (…) that serve the research, development or use of wind energy should be repealed.” Existing regulations should continue to apply.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Economics did not want to confirm the report when asked. “The two percent target is anchored in the coalition agreement,” she told ntv. “We are currently in the process of working out the design. This process is not yet complete, so there is no final decision yet. Therefore, we do not comment on leaks of intermediate results.”
Only six new plants in Bavaria
The federal states are currently allowed to set their own rules for the expansion of wind power. The best-known example is the so-called 10H rule from Bavaria. Accordingly, the distance to a residential building must be ten times greater than the height of the wind turbine. With a wind turbine that is usually 200 meters high, the next building must be 2000 meters away.
Last year, the already sluggish expansion of wind power in Bavaria almost came to a standstill: Only six new plants were approved. Most recently, the Bavarian state government relaxed the regulation after public criticism from the Bavarian economy: In certain areas, the minimum distance may be 1000 meters in the future.
Only a few wind power areas reported
The federal government wants to put a stop to further blockades with its new regulation. As the “Bild” newspaper reports, it should apply from the day it is decided in the federal cabinet. The traffic light wants to prevent states such as Brandenburg, Saxony or Thuringia from setting new distances in the short term. In order to prevent possible protests, the decision should only be taken after the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia next Sunday.
In order to push the expansion of wind power and the energy transition, the traffic light had agreed in the coalition agreement that two percent of all land areas in Germany should be used for wind energy. In fact, the federal states have so far only designated 0.8 percent of their land for expansion, like this Federal Environment Agency calculated. Due to individual restrictions such as the 10-H regulation in Bavaria or the Thuringian Forest Act, only 0.52 percent of the area remains.
In the first quarter of 2022, the number of newly approved wind turbines across Germany fell compared to the previous year. According to preliminary figures from the Wind Energy Agency, the number of wind turbines that were newly commissioned on land also fell. The German Wind Energy Association spoke of a dangerous signal and called for a “turbo” for accelerated procedures.