A law has been in the Thuringian state parliament for months, with which municipalities and citizens should receive a contribution for every kilowatt hour of wind power from systems in their area. It is still unclear whether the financial participation will be finally discussed and decided upon in the state parliament at the end of April.
The state energy agency ThEGA sees the draft law as a step in the right direction, but not a breakthrough for better acceptance and faster expansion of wind energy in Thuringia. However, the originally planned additional entitlement of citizens to 0.1 cents per kilowatt hour has been deleted from the law presented by the red-red-green minority coalition. The CDU parliamentary group said that the organizational effort required by municipalities to provide a kind of credit to citizens was disproportionately high, as was a model for transferring the citizens' share into a somewhat cheaper local electricity tariff. "We would have hoped for more participation through the law for the citizens who have the wind turbines on their doorstep," explains Ramona Ramona, of the ThEGA.