The federal government wants to expand wind power throughout Germany. A controversial question is: should wind turbines also be erected in the forest? This is prohibited in several states. In Thuringia no longer - the Federal Constitutional Court overturns the ban.
A federal state cannot ban the erection of wind turbines in the forest on its own authority. The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe ruled that the legislative competence does not lie with the state, but with the federal government. The corresponding regulation in Thuringia's forest law is void.
The law was unconstitutional and the encroachment on the property rights of the forest owners was therefore not justified, the court further justified its decision. It assigned the Thuringian regulation to land law. But the federal government is responsible for this. The federal states could only make special regulations on the distance between wind turbines and residential buildings.
The court pointed out that 34 percent of the area of the Free State of Thuringia is covered by forest. A significant part of this consists of calamity areas that cannot be used by forestry, or only to a very limited extent, due to storm damage or pest infestation.
A total of nine forest owners submitted a constitutional complaint to the judges in Karlsruhe. Some of the trees on their property were infested with pests and were felled. Wind turbines were to be erected on the vacated areas, but this was not permitted by state law. According to a new regulation from 2020, changing the type of use of forest areas for the construction of wind turbines was not permitted.
At that time, the state parliament in Erfurt had approved a corresponding proposal by the CDU and FDP. The two parties are in opposition in Thuringia, but the red-red-green government does not have its own majority. Because of the energy crisis, this ban has recently been the subject of political discussion again: Thuringia's Green Environment Minister Anja Siegesmund, for example, advocated changing the law in this legislative period on Monday.
The constitutional court now forestalled new political decisions in Thuringia. In some other federal states, too, the use of forest areas for wind energy is not yet permitted, but is sometimes discussed. In addition, the Bundestag approved a legislative package in the summer for the significant expansion of renewable energies. It specifies area targets for the federal states for onshore wind energy, so that a nationwide average of two percent is achieved.
