As of: January 23, 2024, 5:30 a.m
By: Martin Becker
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The Perlach and Grünwald forests are no longer priority areas for wind turbines.
There is protest against this.
© Nicolas Armer/dpa
The Perlach and Grünwald forests are no longer priority areas for wind turbines.
This is what the regional planning association decided.
Nevertheless, people in Unterhaching are hoping for a rethink.
Unterhaching
- The anticipation of a small wind power park in the Perlacher and Grünwalder Forest was great. For almost a year, the four neighboring communities of Unterhaching, Oberhaching, Taufkirchen and Grünwald have been preparing to found a wind energy consortium.
But now the Regional Planning Association (RPV) is putting the brakes on the idea of five to ten wind turbines - the area is not one of the 22 priority areas that the RPV recently defined (we reported).
Nevertheless, Unterhaching is sticking to the founding of the ARGE, and the final decision is due to be made by the local council this Wednesday.
Tenor: loudly put pressure on the RPV to bring about a rethink.
Reasons why forest is no longer a priority area
But why are Perlacher and Grünwalder Forst not on the list of 22 priority areas?
When asked by Münchner Merkur, Marc Wißmann, the new managing director of the RPV since April 2023, explains the background.
“The aim is to create a balanced overall concept for the region,” says Wißmann.
Across several districts in the greater Munich area, 2.3 percent of the region's area, a total of 127 square kilometers, is to be used for wind power.
“Priority is given to areas with great potential.
In order to preserve enough space for people to retreat for local recreation, there should be a sufficient distance between these potential areas, around 15 kilometers.” In the south of Munich, the greatest potential for wind power, according to RPV estimates, is in the Ebersberger Forest, the Höhenkirchner and Hofoldinger Forest and the Forstenrieder Park .
For the Perlach and Grünwald forests, according to Wißmann, this means: “The distances cannot be maintained.” A “minor, but not insignificant aspect” is “the unobstructed view of the Alps,” adds Wißmann: “It is not desirable that View of Munich from the direction of the mountains, a continuous band of wind farms acts like a visual barrier.”
Appalled by the decision of the regional planning association
With the list of 22 priority areas approved in Oberhaching on January 11th, the RPV has now initiated the participation process in the municipalities - they can express objections.
“Our spatial concept, which focuses on a few larger wind farms, serves for control purposes and is well-founded,” says Wißmann.
In Unterhaching they see things somewhat differently.
“I am appalled by the regional planning association’s decision,” said Green Party spokesman Stefan König in the finance committee.
His parliamentary group colleague, state parliament member Claudia Köhler, relies on the strength of the ARGE with the three other wind power municipalities: “It is important that we raise our voices together and raise our voices against the RPV's unreasonable decision.
There is an increased need for energy, especially in metropolitan areas.
Possible open-field voltaic areas in Unterhaching would not be remotely sufficient to compensate for the gap that would arise from a lack of wind power in the Perlacher.”
FDP politician encourages participation in external wind farms
Peter Hupfauer (FDP) and the CSU parliamentary group leader Korbinian Rausch saw it differently.
You shouldn’t “think too narrow-mindedly,” says Rausch.
Hupfauer warned against “parochial politics” and advised that the community should rather seek participation in external wind farms: “The climate does not care whether a wind turbine is in Unterhaching or elsewhere.” With a vote of 15:0, the committee recommended the formation of the ARGE, which the local council is now deciding on.
Even if this work costs money and time, you want to be prepared if the RPV does change course.