The municipalities in the district are currently reporting potential areas for wind power to the Regional Planning Association. © Armin Weigel
In order to meet the requirements of the "onshore wind" law passed by the Bundestag last year, the district municipalities are currently reporting potential areas for wind power to the Regional Planning Association (RPV). The municipalities want to act "in solidarity" and exceed the demands of federal politics. However, it will probably be many years before the first wind turbines are up and running.
Dachau – In order to get the expansion of wind energy going, the Bundestag passed the so-called "onshore wind" law last summer. For Bavaria, this law means that the Free State must reserve 1.1 percent of its land area for wind turbines by the end of 2027 and 1.8 percent of its area by the end of 2032.
The designation of these areas is organised by the 18 regional planning associations. Dachau is part of planning region 14, which also includes the state capital Munich and the districts of Ebersberg, Erding, Freising, Fürstenfeldbruck, Landsberg am Lech, Munich and Starnberg.
Even if the individual municipalities are to determine their respective areas individually and report them to Munich, the district wants to speak with one voice on the subject, as Dachau's Lord Mayor Florian Hartmann explained to his building committee on Tuesday. The large district town, like many other municipalities (we reported), had the topic of area designation for wind turbines on the agenda. In Dachau, as elsewhere, there was little discussion about this. "We have to implement the law," Hartmann said. The municipalities such as the city will therefore now report all free areas to Munich that are 1000 meters away from the residential development as possible wind power areas; in outdoor areas, a minimum distance of 800 meters between buildings and wind turbines should apply.
It is important to note that it is not yet clear whether these areas will actually be suitable for wind turbines. "It is not our job to check this," said the mayor. For example, the Assenhausen area will appear again on the report from the city of Dachau to the RPV – where a wind turbine project planned by the municipal utilities had to be stopped again five years ago due to the occurrence of the strictly protected honey buzzard.
After all, the district municipalities do not currently have too much work to do in their search for land. Twelve years ago, the district municipalities had already joined forces under the auspices of the district office to designate so-called wind power concentration areas. The aim at the time was to avoid uncontrolled growth of wind turbines in the district. However, after the Free State of Bavaria introduced the so-called 2014H rule in 10 and relegated the planning authority over wind turbine construction back to the municipalities, the old wind turbine area plans also disappeared into the drawer.
"No mayor wanted to burn his fingers on the subject anymore," recalls Pfaffenhof's mayor and deputy district administrator Helmut Zech. The citizens had gone "to the barricades" at that time, and the plants were not particularly efficient at that time. The necessary infrastructure to feed wind energy into the power grid was also even less available at that time than it is today.
Nevertheless, Zech's municipality of Pfaffenhofen and its neighbour Odelzhausen are already one step ahead of their district colleagues. 3.9 percent of Odelzhaus' municipal area is earmarked for wind power, and there are five wind turbines there. Pfaffenhofen also changed its land use plan a few years ago to the effect that 1.95 percent of the municipality is available for the production of wind energy. "We have already done our duty," Zech sums it up – and still admits that shutting down the nuclear power plants was "naïve".
The reasons for his pessimism are many. On the one hand, Zech believes that – even though approval of wind power may have increased in recent months – there is still resistance. "It's enough for someone to sue."
Secondly, the approval procedures still take an agonizingly long time: "Five years, if all goes well." And then "the network compatibility has not yet been checked"!
0
Also Read
"This cohesion does not exist everywhere"
READ
Anticipation of the Karlsfeld Settlers' Festival: Mallorca evening and cabaret
READ
The hall of a laundry in Karpfhofen burns out
READ
With old treasures through the district \u2012 Spring trip of the friends of old vehicles Dachau
READ
Unknown persons attack 33-year-old and rob his mobile phone
READ
Fancy a voyage of discovery?
My Area
In addition, he cannot imagine that the neighboring districts will show similar "solidarity" as the Dachau district mayors announced in their joint planning. With 1.6 percent of the reported wind power areas, Dachau fulfills its obligation of 1.1 percent well over. He considers it unlikely that the city of Munich, the airport districts of Freising and Erding as well as the tourism district of Starnberg will be just as open-minded.
Dachau's Mayor Hartmann puts it this way: "It is clear to us that others will report less." But in the end, the RPV would have to make sure that the Bavaria-wide "onshore wind" target is met. In order to be on the safe side for Dachau, he therefore wants to set his own specifications in the medium term and amend the urban land use plan accordingly. Taking matters into one's own hands, Hartmann believes, is faster than waiting for the RPV.
