For years, investors and climate protectors have been complaining about the lengthy approval procedures for wind turbines in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. A new law should speed things up. However, the state government's plans are not without controversy.
Schwerin (dpa / mv) - The change in the law announced by Environment Minister Till Backhaus (SPD) on accelerated approval procedures for wind turbines has triggered different reactions. The regional association for renewable energies evaluated the planned changes as a logical decision, with which Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania would do justice to the significantly increased importance of environmentally friendly energy generation. Renewable energies are systemically and security-relevant and in the future will not only be of paramount importance for climate protection, but also for security of supply, according to a statement by the association distributed in Schwerin on Wednesday.
Criticism came from the AfD in the state parliament: "There can be no question of a stringent, effective and targeted clarification of species protection issues if the lower nature conservation authorities lose their competence. Rather, the expansion of wind power should obviously be pushed through, regardless of losses". , explained the AfD MP Thore Stein. He also criticized the fact that the construction of new wind farms was being pushed ahead without the power grids being expanded and the necessary storage capacities not being available.
According to the draft law presented by Backhaus in the cabinet on Tuesday, instead of the district administrations, the state offices for agriculture and the environment under him should in future also take over the nature and species protection tests for the construction of new wind turbines. The minister hopes that "a more stringent processing of the applications". Extremely long processing times, in addition to earlier changes in the federal law, had meant that the expansion of wind power use in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had made little progress in recent years.
The chairman of the regional association for renewable energies, Johann-Georg Jaeger, called for uniform and transparent criteria for the future central processing of permits. "Clear and unambiguous specifications for the approval process are also important for the employees in the responsible offices," he emphasized. The basis for this is also a quick agreement between the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of the Environment on a wind energy decree, which has been announced for a long time but is still not available.
According to surveys by the consulting company Windguard, only 30 megawatts of wind energy capacity were added in the north-east in the first half of 2022. In the neighboring state of Schleswig-Holstein, which is the leader in Germany with 233 megawatts of net new construction, it was many times over in the same period. According to the Economics Ministry, 1,847 wind turbines with a total output of 3,524 megawatts were installed on land in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania at the end of last year. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has been producing more electricity from renewable sources than it consumes for years.
