The Doll Hall in Ried was packed to the brim at the event of the non-partisan working group on wind power in the district. There were practically no voices critical of wind power. © east
Ried - The event of the non-partisan working group on wind power in the district under the motto "Fresh wind in Dachau" had a magnetic effect: Citizens from all over the district ensured a full Doll Hall.
Helmut Zech, deputy district administrator and mayor of Pfaffenhofen, who wants to build four wind turbines in his municipality, got straight to the point with the question "Who is against wind turbines?" Of the nearly 200 attendees at the event, there was only one lady who rejected wind energy and would give priority to other technologies.
The speakers – in addition to Zech, these were Werner Hillebrand-Hansen from the Freisinger Land citizens' energy cooperative and Zech's CSU mayor colleague Martin Seitz from Gerolsbach – explained that it would probably not work without wind energy in the future. Hillebrand-Hansen, whose cooperative operates the wind turbine in Kammerberg, among other things, explained how climate protection works with citizen participation.
According to the report, the citizens' energy cooperative was founded in 2013, has 1370 members and has gained 300 members this year alone. According to Hillebrand-Hansen, total assets in 2021 amounted to 7 million euros. "We are also electricity traders," says the expert with regard to his 800 electricity customers. It has the largest charging network in the district of Freising. He estimated the average annual yield of the Kammerberg wheel at 7 million kWh of electricity.
And wind power offers even more advantages: it requires comparatively little space. According to Hillebrand-Hansen, a wind turbine needs 0.3 hectares of land, but with the same output with biogas, that would be 600 hectares that agriculture would lack.
The fact that participation in a wind turbine can be worthwhile not only for the citizens, but also for municipalities, was also underlined by the mayor of Gerolsbach, Seitz. On the one hand, the cooperatives would pay trade taxes. On the other hand, his municipality already operates three wind turbines through a municipal company and wants to build two more. "The vast majority of our citizens are behind it," emphasized Seitz, who has never experienced a negative mood in the citizenry. The decisive factor for this was that "the citizenry was taken on board at a very early stage," Seitz said.
In the meantime, 61 percent of the community wind power in Gerolsbach would belong to the municipality. Wind power even generated so much surplus last year that the municipality will use the money to build a kindergarten.
Concerns about noise dispelled
However, the Pfaffenhofener Zech did not want to see the topic quite so rosy. His municipality had drawn up a so-called partial land use plan for wind energy at a very early stage and is now in the process of creating a special biogas plant. Unfortunately, however, the control capacities for feeding in the energy generated are still lacking. How problematic this is is shown by the fact that the municipality of Odelzhausen now has to expand and upgrade its substation in Höfa accordingly.
Among the many reports from the audience, the question of leasing possible wind turbine areas was also discussed. The Gerolsbach wind turbines are all located in the state forest and "the state is also working hard there," Mayor Seitz had to admit. The audience was also interested in the form of such citizen participation. According to the speakers, this will take place in the form of shares and in the form of loans.
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Michael Reiter from Altomünster dispelled concerns about whether wind turbines do not produce unnecessary noise: "Citizens in the vicinity of the wind turbines built behind Hohenzell have explained to me that they hear the motorway noise, but nothing from the wind turbines." Citizens will be able to participate in the Dachauer Land Citizens' Energy Cooperative, which wants to found Reiter's municipality of Altomünster with the neighbouring municipalities of Indersdorf and Hilgertshausen-Tandern (we reported), with 100 euros from autumn.
"The time is ripe," Reiter said at the end. Ulrich Rauhut from the non-partisan working group on wind power in the district was sure that, also through events like this, "wind power is showing up in more and more people's minds".
