It should be one of the most important topics in coalition negotiations after the election: higher goals in the expansion of renewable energies.
The Minister of Economic Affairs speaks of a show of strength.
Berlin - In Germany, significantly more new wind turbines are to be built on land in the coming years - in order to achieve climate targets.
The expansion is now making better progress.
From the point of view of the energy industry, however, the level is nowhere near enough.
Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) also wants significantly more speed.
"I expect that we will have to increase the expansion of renewable energies by up to a third," said the CDU politician of the German press agency.
"For the upcoming coalition negotiations, I will present specific proposals for new expansion targets," said Altmaier.
This applies particularly to wind energy at sea and on land as well as photovoltaics.
"Until 2030, this can only be achieved through a national effort."
Even now, however, there are often a lot of local protests against wind turbines: the lack of natural resources in the landscape, too close to residential buildings, noise, conflicts over species protection, are the criticisms.
In addition, the systems are getting higher and higher.
It will be difficult without wind turbines
Without many more wind turbines, however, it will be difficult to achieve the energy transition - to say goodbye to fossil fuels. "With the drastic tightening of the German climate protection law in June and the submission of the new EU climate package in July, it is clear that we must significantly increase our efforts in climate protection," said Altmaier. “For example, we will be using around 15 percent more electricity by 2030 because there will be many more electric cars on our roads and many more heat pumps in our houses than previously assumed. At the same time, we will shut down all nuclear power plants as planned, and many coal-fired power plants will be shut down faster than anticipated. That is why we need a lot more new wind turbines and solar roofs than previously thought. "
After two difficult years of expansion, significantly more new onshore wind turbines were connected to the grid again in the first half of 2021.
According to industry information, 240 wind turbines with an output of 971 megawatts were installed - in terms of output, this is an increase of 62 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.
Because 135 wind turbines with an output of 140 megawatts were shut down, the so-called net expansion was 831 megawatts.
More speed required
The bottom was over, said Hermann Albers, President of the Federal Wind Energy Association, on Tuesday. In order to achieve the climate targets at European and national level, however, the expansion must be accelerated. "We need significantly more renewable electricity," said Matthias Zelinger, Managing Director of VDMA Power Systems. Wind energy must be the strong draft horse.
There are currently around 29,000 wind turbines in Germany with a total output of more than 55 gigawatts.
The federal government's previous target is 71 gigawatts in 2030. The energy industry is calling for an increase to 95 gigawatts by 2030. Long planning and approval procedures are considered obstacles to expansion, and many lawsuits are delaying the commissioning of new plants.
From the point of view of the energy industry, however, the biggest problem is probably that there is not enough designated space.
Goal: Two percent of the area for wind energy
Albers called for binding targets so that two percent of the area in the federal states would be used for wind energy.
Many countries are still a long way from achieving this.
There is a strong north-south divide.
The "wind countries" with the most installed systems are Lower Saxony, Brandenburg and Schleswig-Holstein.
The "mass carrier" wind will also be indispensable in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, said Albers.
The two countries would have to provide more space.
The demand for renewable energies is increasing sharply in these regions.
Albers referred to plans by automakers to focus more on electromobility.
Above all, the 10-H rule in Bavaria is controversial. It states that a wind turbine must be at least ten times its height away from residential developments. Specifically, this means: if a wind turbine is 200 meters high, the residential development must be at least 2 kilometers away. This is a much stricter regulation than in other countries. The 10-H rule must be abolished, said Zelinger.
Altmaier said that new expansion targets for renewable energies would have to be broken down to the federal states so that it would be clarified in concrete terms how much, when and by where will be expanded. “I will clarify together with the energy ministers of the federal states what potential is available. In the ideal case, a coherent picture emerges quickly, otherwise tough discussions are ahead: the statutory expansion targets and the land planning of the federal states must ultimately match. This is a national task. The four years until 2025 will be the most exciting of the energy transition so far. "
The Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock accused the Union of a policy of blockade: "The expansion of wind power is still far behind what is necessary, also because the Union has hindered it for years," she said. "Anyone who says climate protection must also build wind turbines." Dpa