Tuesday, November 02, 2021
Overall performance still too weak
Significantly more wind turbines are going into operation
After coal energy is experiencing a renaissance in 2020, there is currently good news from renewables: In Germany, almost 350 wind turbines will be launched this year. Your performance already corresponds to that of the entire previous year. The north is great, one country in the south is particularly weak.
In Germany, significantly more new onshore wind turbines went into operation in the first nine months of this year than in the same period of the previous year. From January to September 345 systems with a total output of around 1.4 gigawatts were connected to the grid – that is an increase of more than 50 percent in output. This emerges from an overview by the specialist agency Wind an Land.
Hermann Albers, President of the German Wind Energy Association, said that a strong fourth quarter could make it possible to break the 2 gigawatt mark in new construction for the year as a whole. This would be a good signal, even if the energy transition actually requires more than 5 gigawatts of new wind energy capacity on land every year.
In 2020 as a whole, new wind turbines with a total output of 1.4 gigawatts were built. The numbers come in the middle of the coalition negotiations between the SPD, Greens and FDP. In their exploratory paper, the three parties stated that the goal was to drastically accelerate the expansion of renewable energies and to remove all hurdles and obstacles. When it comes to the expansion of onshore wind power from January to the end of September, Brandenburg is ahead with 76 wind turbines, followed by Lower Saxony (71), North Rhine-Westphalia (50) and Schleswig-Holstein (48). In the state of Bavaria, the largest in terms of area, there were only 8.
165 plants were shut down
Because, according to the industry, 165 wind turbines with an output of 172 megawatts were also shut down, the so-called net expansion is 1200 megawatts. The number of newly approved wind turbines that are not yet in operation increased significantly in the first nine months compared to the previous year. Albers said the key to more permits is in the areas. “That is why it is essential that the new federal government sets a clear premise here. 2 percent in every federal state must be made mandatory.”
That is also the goal of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP. The exploratory paper states that two percent of the land area should be designated for onshore wind power. So far, this possible target has not been achieved by a long way. “Nobody should take away their responsibility for the energy transition,” said Albers. “In addition, the announced tightening of permits is needed.” The motto must be faster and significantly easier to compensate for the dent in additions over the past few years. Albers also warned: “The inadequate expansion and the lack of permits are creating a dangerous mix in the high-consumption south-east and south-west.