The distance of 1000 meters between wind turbines and housing estates should already apply in the future if more than five residential buildings stand together. This emerges from the draft bill for a law by Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU), which is the SPIEGEL present. The draft must now be agreed between the ministries. Responsible is the Ministry of Construction of Horst Seehofer (CSU).
The law is to be passed by the Federal Cabinet on Monday and is part of the climate package.
"This regulation is intended to increase acceptance and is balanced in that it is a deviation clause," said a spokeswoman for Altmaier. This means that countries and municipalities could decide for themselves whether they want to deviate from this regulation. Despite this rule, some countries and local communities fear legal uncertainty and new political strife.
The industry fears less space for wind farms
Complaints by residents are one of the reasons why the expansion of wind farms is stagnating. Only last week, the wind turbine manufacturer Enercon had announced that it would reduce its sales by up to 3,000 jobs. The industry fears that the distance regulation will make even less space available for wind farms and even endanger ongoing planning for years.
The Federal Environment Agency fears that an application of the minimum distance of 1000 meters will reduce the area on which wind turbines may be built by 20 to 50 percent. "An increase in wind energy capacity compared to the status quo is in fact not possible on the remaining area," says a study by the Federal Environmental Agency.
Criticism of the bill
From the industry and environmental associations came criticism. "The planned distance regulation is another major obstacle to the expansion of onshore wind power," said Simone Peter, President of the German Renewable Energy Federation (BEE).
The environmental protection organization WWF called for the wind power regulations to be removed from the law and for a "Growth, Renewables and Employment" commission to be found, in order to find ways to boost wind energy expansion. It's about the future of tens of thousands of jobs.