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Wind turbines behind a new housing estate in Bavaria
Photo: Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/ dpa
The CSU parliamentary group voted to relax the previous strict 10H distance rule for wind turbines.
After several hours of discussion, the deputies voted that in certain areas the minimum distance between wind turbines and residential buildings should be reduced to 1000 meters, as Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) said afterwards.
He hopes that up to 800 new wind turbines will now be built.
Söder originally set a target of 500 wind turbines plus X.
This enables wind power to cover almost two percent of the country's area.
According to this, a reduced minimum distance of 1000 meters will apply to wind power in future in certain areas – for example in forests, along motorways, four-lane federal roads or main railway lines as well as in designated priority areas.
Likewise when replacing existing wind turbines, on military training areas and with wind turbines as "industrial ancillary systems".
In principle, the CSU wants to continue to adhere to the 10H rule, which defines the minimum distance between a wind turbine and the nearest residential area: this must be ten times the height of the wheel.
For a 200 meter high wind turbine, this is 2000 meters.
Since the introduction of the controversial regulation, the expansion of wind power in Bavaria has practically come to a standstill.
kim/dpa/AFP
