At their autumn meeting in Hamburg, the environment ministers of the states unanimously opposed setting a minimum distance for the construction of wind turbines. A bill by the Federal Ministry of Economics has been causing heated discussions for days.
The federal government and the coalition leaders were in principle suitable for keeping wind turbines and housing estates at least 1000 meters apart. The bill by Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) also specified that this rule should apply even if there are more than five houses together. That could significantly reduce the number of possible locations for wind turbines.
The regulation planned by the Federal Government is "a wrong signal for the already almost extinguished development of wind energy ashore", it says in the decision of the environment ministers. "Driving wind power to the wall - that can not be the way if we take climate protection seriously," said Baden-Württemberg's Environment Minister Franz Untersteller (Greens).
Even within the federal government there is a dispute over the distance rule. Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) rejects Altmaier's draft. "We disagree with this proposal," she said. To create 65 percent green electricity by 2030, wind power must be expanded, said Schulze. "What the Ministry of Economics has submitted, is not yet sufficient."
The draft had also caused strong protests at environmental and energy associations - they criticized that this would prevent a further expansion of wind power in Germany and deepen the crisis of the industry.