"Climate change will wipe out so much" - an expert explains why more wind power is now needed in Bavaria
Created: 01/12/2022 06:09
By: Thomas Eldersch
The CSU under Markus Söder is struggling with wind power, meanwhile we need the environmentally friendly electricity alternative, says expert Stefan Holzheu.
© Sven Hoppe/dpa/private
Climate change is progressing.
The fossil age is nearing its end.
Nevertheless, the expansion of wind energy in Bavaria is faltering.
An expert explains.
Munich – There is fear in Bavaria.
The fear of a blackout in winter.
The fear of too high electricity and energy prices.
Meanwhile, the supposed solution to the problems is so close.
It blows daily over our fields and through our forests.
Wind energy already exists, but its expansion has come to a standstill in recent years.
According to energy expert Stefan Holzheu from the University of Bayreuth, this is also due to Markus Söder and his CSU.
In an interview with Merkur.de
, he reveals where Bayern slept and what you should do sooner rather than later
.
Wind power expansion in Bavaria is faltering - but what are the reasons?
Wind power is a political issue in Bavaria.
Why is that?
Holzhay:
There was often resistance from the population against wind turbines.
And that's probably what the Bavarian government thought, too many would defect to the AfD, so we don't want any wind turbines.
We were actually doing quite well in Bavaria with the expansion of wind power.
We also have enough space.
The Free State is by far the largest area in Germany.
Of course we have to build wind energy.
Where does people's aversion to wind turbines come from?
Wood hay:
A topic that opponents of wind power always like to bring up and has always been refuted by science as a humbug topic is infrasound.
A wind farm near Bayreuth was rejected for precisely this reason.
That spurred me on as a scientist to do some research here.
And then there is also the protection of species, right?
Holzhay:
It's amazing how much emphasis is placed on species protection in wind turbines, but in other projects, such as open-cast lignite mining, everything is simply dredged up.
Scientific findings on the topic of species protection and wind power all indicate that species protection is not nearly as relevant as it is always made out to be.
The best example is the red kite.
Opponents claim the animals don't see the facilities and are dying by the thousands, but scientific studies disagree.
A far greater threat to the Red Kite will be climate change anyway, right?
Holzheu:
Climate change will wipe out so much that we can't even estimate that at the moment.
A dead red kite flying into a rotor blade is irrelevant.
dr
Stefan Holzheu from the Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research.
© University of Bayreuth
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Citizens must also be financially involved in the expansion of wind power
So how do you convince citizens that wind power is right for them?
Holzhay:
By involving them.
There are wind turbines that have been financed 100 percent by local residents.
The profits remain almost entirely in place.
Trouble is, it was even easier in the 1990s.
For example, a species protection report cost a few thousand euros.
Today you pay around half a million euros for it.
Why is that?
Holzhay:
That's up to the CSU.
They issued the Bavarian Wind Energy Decree in 2016 and it seems to me that they wanted to slow down wind energy.
There is a big point in this decree: the species protection regulations when building a wind turbine.
There are many of them and some of them are formulated in contradictory ways.
As a result, the reports have become very lengthy and expensive.
But if a project manager has staying power and has such an expert report drawn up, then at least construction can start right away, right?
Holzhay:
Not quite, there is also the VLAB (Association for Landscape Conservation, Species Protection & Biodiversity).
Because the wind energy decree is written in such an ambiguous way, it can be pretty certain that the largest lawsuit association in Bavaria will complain about the wind turbine.
And because the formulations are the way they are, they are often right.
Result: I'm not allowed to build the system and in the worst case I sunk half a million euros.
But now Markus Söder and the CSU have also realized that more renewable energies are needed and the 10H rule has been relaxed.
Does that help?
Wood hay:
The slight softening of 10H is not enough.
You don't see that applications are now going up sharply.
But it is now up to Söder to do something.
It could also simplify and thereby speed up the processing of applications.
It falls within his area of competence and as a state politician he has the options.
But I see no ambitions at all to change anything.
(By the way: Our Bayern newsletter informs you about all the important stories from Bavaria. Register here.)
Is wind power in Bavaria even a reliable source of electricity?
When the wind isn't blowing, there's no electricity.
This is a common argument used by opponents of wind power.
What do you make of it?
Holzhay:
Of course, a wind power plant that isn't working doesn't help us.
But when it works, it will displace gas and coal-fired power plants.
And the raw materials saved in this way can then be used when the wind turbine is not running.
In this way I definitely reduce the consumption of fossil fuels.
Wind power is sometimes referred to as flutter current.
In other words, electricity that is only available irregularly.
Holzheu:
I resist the term a little bit.
Wind power will not go from 100 to zero in an hour.
Production changes extremely constantly and is very predictable.
You know the day before what output we can expect from photovoltaics and wind power.
It's also not about the individual system, which can vary quite a bit.
But if you look at the sum of all investments, it's a very smooth curve.
Another power source that has been hotly debated in recent months is nuclear power.
How does this compare to wind power?
Holzhay:
The construction of a new nuclear power plant is very expensive.
Wind and solar energy is significantly cheaper there, even if you have to add the construction of storage facilities in the future.
The situation is a little different for existing power plants.
Fuel rods are relatively cheap compared to their potential performance.
The big unknown is the dismantling and disposal of the waste.
That can get very expensive.
Video: How is Bavaria positioned in terms of wind power?
"Power lines from the north were actually needed now"
Now it is said again and again that the majority of wind power is generated in northern Germany anyway, so the wind power plants in the south don't bring that much.
Is that correct?
Holzheu:
There is indeed an electricity zone in Germany.
Hence the misconception that if we generate a lot of electricity in the north, it will also benefit the south.
But the power lines are missing.
It's just not physically possible.
And so it happens again and again that wind power operators in the north throttle their systems while we in the south have to turn on our gas power plants.
Power lines from the north to the south are a well-known controversial issue and a political issue.
Holzheu:
Unfortunately, something that the CSU messed up again.
Citizens have stirred up sentiment against monster routes and politicians have stepped in and choked off the plans.
It is dangerous to think short-sightedly and hope that one day the problems will be solved.
Eventually they hit and that's the case now.
We actually needed the power lines now.
They were actually planned to be finished now.
Why is the CSU having such a hard time with wind power?
Holzheu:
There are many old party members who share the old opinion 'wind power sucks'.
They simply lack the idea of how a modern electricity system can work.
They often argue that we need electricity all the time and wind power doesn't supply electricity all the time.
They don't understand the subject technically and they don't see what the problem with fossil-based power generation is.
They don't realize how dramatic climate change is.
And they don't realize that today we have battery storage, grids and other options.
Of course it is a challenge to set up a system with 100 percent renewable electricity, but the technology already exists, now it just has to be applied.
The interview was conducted by Tom Eldersch.
