The five northern German states have sent a letter to the Federal Government because of the crisis in the wind industry. In the letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), the heads of government of Lower Saxony, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ask for a discussion and present a concrete eleven point plan.
The wind energy industry is in a dramatic position, said the five country leaders at a joint press conference in Berlin. Over the past three years, more than 40,000 jobs have been lost. The expansion of wind energy on land had practically come to a standstill this year. If this trend continues, there will no longer be any German wind power industry in the foreseeable future.
The heads of government demanded, among other things, a strong expansion of offshore wind energy, the privilege of true community wind farms, the exploitation of all possible areas for facilities, the optimization of network expansion and the acceleration of licensing procedures.
Wind industry calls for abandonment of controversial distance rule
The wind industry also warned of a collapse of the industry. The current and former federal governments would have slowed down the expansion "by wrong decisions and by non-action", said the head of the business association wind power plants, Wolfgang von Geldern.
The industry has been complaining for a long time that there is no space for expansion. In addition, the number of permits has been falling sharply since 2017. In many places citizens complain against the construction of wind turbines.
The wind industry criticized now, the planned minimum distance of 1000 meters to residential development, but also requirements of air traffic control and species protection slowed the development. "We are forgoing opportunities in future large world markets and we have to stop this process," said Hermann Albers, President of the German Wind Energy Association.
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Together with the wind turbine manufacturer Enercon, the energy supplier EnBW and the car maker Volkswagen, the two associations demanded five immediate measures against the crisis in the wind industry. The government should give up the planned 1000-meter distance immediately, in addition, the federal government set standards for conflict resolution in species protection, reduce the minimum distance to radio beacons of air traffic control, identify two percent of the land as priority areas and decouple the expansion of wind energy from grid expansion.
