As of: February 27, 2024, 3:46 p.m
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Wind turbines illuminated with signal lamps rotate after sunset.
© Jens Büttner/dpa/archive image
The construction of wind turbines in the forest is causing heated arguments between the government and the opposition.
The dispute could end up before the constitutional judges again.
Erfurt - According to Infrastructure Minister Susanna Karawanskij (Left), Thuringia's state government is examining a constitutional complaint against restrictions on the construction of wind turbines in the forest.
The cabinet is expected to deal with this in March.
First we should wait for a report from the state parliament's scientific service, said Karawanskij on Tuesday after the cabinet meeting in Erfurt.
The background is state parliament resolutions that are intended to make the construction of wind turbines in Thuringia's forests more difficult or require a complete waiver.
The minister described these decisions as wrong and said they were a brake on the expansion of renewable energies.
She received support from the Green and Left coalition factions.
Criticism came from the opposition.
100,000 hectares of forest damaged
In order to advance the expansion of wind power, Thuringia also needs wind turbines on fallow areas in the forest that were caused by drought or bark beetle infestation, said the minister.
Otherwise the wind turbines would rotate primarily in central and northern Thuringia - a regional balance could not be achieved.
After all, a third of the country's area is forest, and 100,000 hectares, primarily of spruce trees, are damaged.
Karawanskij held out the prospect of case-by-case decisions regarding forest locations.
So far, the projects there have not exactly been piling up with the approval authorities - so far there has hardly been a wind turbine in a forest area.
“In fact, I am not aware of any project,” said the minister.
2.2 percent of the country's area for wind turbines
She sees the regional planning communities required to identify locations.
According to federal law, Thuringia must designate a total of 2.2 percent of its state area for wind turbines by the end of 2032.
“This cannot be achieved without using calamity areas.” These are areas with masses of diseased plants.
To do this, reforestation would be carried out elsewhere - after all, a reforestation program has already been running for several years.
The State Forestry Agency could also receive income from wind energy, which could be used to speed up forest renewal.
The Forest Act was changed in December 2023 by the FDP together with the opposition factions CDU and AfD to make it more difficult to build wind turbines.
This regulation is legally controversial.
A general ban on wind turbines in the Thuringian forests, which applied until 2022, was overturned as unconstitutional by the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.
However, it is still being demanded by the CDU parliamentary group.
Only six new wind turbines in Thuringia in 2023
The FDP MP Dirk Bergner and the CDU MP Thomas Gottweiss accused Karawanskij of a lack of respect for the state parliament as a legislator.
The Forest Act, which was amended at the suggestion of the FDP, does not mean a blanket ban on wind turbines in the forest, explained Bergner.
It’s about “a clear balance that takes the importance of forests and nature conservation into account.”
Gottweiss explained that the state parliament had decided on the initiative of the CDU parliamentary group to prohibit the state forestry institute from building wind turbines in the state forest and to advocate for an opening clause in the federal government that would allow state-specific regulations to exclude wind turbines in the forest.
Karawansky refused.
AfD MP Nadine Hoffmann accused the government of “acting against environmental protection”.
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While the installation of solar systems boomed last year, developments in wind energy were subdued.
According to the Thuringian Energy and Greentech Agency, only six wind turbines were added in 2023.
That should change.
It was said that 37 new wind turbines had been approved.
dpa