Conservationists: No wind power expansion without species protection

Created: 01/07/2022Updated: 01/07/2022, 2:41 PM

A wind turbine in a wind farm.

© Philipp von Ditfurth / dpa

In Baden-Württemberg, more wind turbines urgently need to turn in order for the state to achieve its climate goals.

Of course, the environmentalists also rely on renewable energies.

But wind turbines should not be created at the expense of nature and animal protection, they demand.

Radolfzell - According to environmentalists, the significant expansion of wind power in Baden-Württemberg can only work if rare animals and nature are also better protected. "That will only progress if you can see that there is also progress elsewhere," said the chairmen of the two large regional associations, Johannes Enssle (NABU) and Sylvia Pilarsky-Grosch (BUND), on Friday as part of the first digital nature conservation days in Radolfzell. Climate protection and species protection should not be played off against each other. Among other things, bird and bat species would have to be given special support so that 1,000 new wind turbines could be built on two percent of the land area as planned.

The costs for personnel, species aid programs and species monitoring - a kind of inventory - estimate the nature conservation association (Nabu) and the association for the environment and nature conservation (BUND) at 15 to 20 million euros annually. “Climate and species protection is not free,” said Enssle and Pilarsky-Grosch. In addition, conflicts could be avoided if the public and associations were involved early enough and openly. "Public participation can help to pacify conflicts," said Pilarsky-Grosch. In addition, no more than the previously announced two percent of the country's area should be made available for expansion.

It must be ensured "that the conservation status of the populations of wind energy-sensitive species does not deteriorate on a national level," says a catalog of demands made by the associations. Aid programs for the protection of bat and bird species would have to be anchored in law and implemented in a binding manner. Among other things, it is possible to secure summer and winter quarters and to create more insect-friendly flowering areas in agriculture. "For bird species that are sensitive to wind energy, such as red kite, honey buzzard or black stork, protection zones can be set up in the forest around the eyrie, suitable foraging habitats can be designed and arable and grassland can be managed in a bird-friendly manner," suggest the associations.

With a large part of their demands, Nabu and BUND also comply with the proposals of the newly established "Task Force" for the expansion of wind power.

“We don't have any areas of conflict at the moment,” said Pilarsky-Grosch.

However, there was a lack of specific commitments, for example on aid programs for rare species, said Enssle.

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With the ideas of the expert committee, the state wants to provide more space for wind power and solar systems and to purify the approval process. Among other things, applications, reports and statements on the planning and construction of wind turbines are to be digitized and checked for completeness more quickly. There are also plans to open landscape protection areas in addition to the state forest. Environment Minister Thekla Walker (Greens) has also announced exemptions from species protection law so that wind turbines can be built more frequently despite conflicts with animal rights activists.

Walker called the energy transition on Friday "a task for society as a whole", which would also involve environmental and nature conservation associations. "It is very important to me that we do not play off climate protection against nature conservation when expanding," she said. "Because we have to get a grip on both of the major crises of our time, climate change and the preservation of our biological diversity."

Pressure and speed in expanding wind power are necessary because the construction of wind turbines has collapsed.

The approval process is long and the protest is loud.

At the end of 2020, only 731 systems were in operation in the southwest, which is just twelve more than in the previous year.

For comparison: There are more than 6350 wind turbines in Lower Saxony.

In the southwest, it currently takes between six and seven years for a wind farm to be in place.

According to the Ministry of the Environment, figures for the past year are not yet available.

dpa