Wind energy vote – Muttenz says yes to the first large wind turbine in the Basel region – News

Green light for 200-meter wind turbine in Muttenz (BL): The special zone between A2 and shunting tracks came through at the ballot box.

In the end, the voters decided with a yes majority of 55 percent for a necessary change in the zone regulations.

This was preceded by a no from the Muttenz municipal assembly in 2021, then – after a student petition for it – a clear yes at the second attempt in December 2022. But the referendum came about against it.

In concrete terms, a “special zone for wind turbines” is being created in the municipality bordering on the east of the city of Basel. This allows the construction of a wind turbine up to 200 meters high and with a maximum output of five megawatts. According to voting documents, around ten percent of the households in the 18,000-strong community can be supplied with wind power.

In the voting campaign, the waves went up. The opponents doubted that there was enough wind at this location in the Rhine plain. Among other things, they criticized the wind turbine as a “monster”: it was as high as the Roche Tower in Basel and would spoil the landscape. In addition, noise is to be feared because the system is 500 meters away and too close to the residential area.

Legend:

The opposition poster put aesthetics first.

SRF / Roger Lange

A subsidiary of the regional utility company Primeo Energie wants to build the wind turbine. According to the municipality, wind measurements allow profitable operation. The Muttenz municipal council spoke out in favor of the plant, with reference to the phasing out of nuclear energy and the increasing demand for electricity in the future. Proponents also argued that the wind turbine would contribute to the supply in winter, when Switzerland has been importing the most electricity so far. And noise is hardly an issue next to the motorway and marshalling yard.

Once a wind power pioneer canton

New wind turbines in the Basel area have been discussed for many years. The first wind turbine in Switzerland was built at the Oberen Hauenstein Pass in 1986 on Baselbiet soil, but it has been defective since 2019.

A project by the Basel Industrial Works with four modern wind turbines on the Chall ob Röschenz has come to a standstill in the face of political opposition. Elektra Baselland put a project with three wind turbines on the Schleifenberg near Liestal on hold in 2018 in view of the low electricity prices at the time.

The latest regional wind power ideas also affect Muttenz: The ADEV cooperative has considered building a plant in the Schweizerhalle industrial area.