Hubert Aiwanger likes to put things in simple pictures. On this Monday it sounds like this: “The forest has the advantage that the wind turbines are somewhat hidden there.” The Minister of Economic Affairs can imagine a total of 300 locations in the forests of the Free State, with space for up to 1000 wind turbines. He presented the corresponding plans at an on-site visit in Creußen in Upper Franconia (Bayreuth district). But does that really bring “new movement” to the Bavarian wind power debate, as Aiwanger announced?
In order to sound out which forests are suitable for wind turbines, the ministry has mapped the forest areas in Bavaria. Areas in which a relatively high amount of wind blows, which are at least 1250 meters away from the nearest settlement and are not nature reserves, were selected. According to Aiwanger, around a third of the areas that are suitable for wind power are in state forests, and two thirds in private areas. The minister wants to lure private forest owners with lease income. Aiwanger says that if you make your forest available for a wind turbine, you can expect ten thousand euros per year to rent.
The 10-H-Regln had to go
The basic problem of wind power in Bavaria that Aiwanger wants to deal with his plans is well known: the 10-H rule, in force since the end of 2014. According to this, the distance between new wind turbines and localities must be at least ten times the system height, with modern wind turbines this is at least two kilometers. However, since there are only a few locations in Bavaria that meet this requirement and key CSU members of the state parliament stubbornly adhere to the rule, hardly any new wind turbines are installed in the Free State. Not everyone believes that the solution to this problem should now lie in the forest.
“A sign of poverty,” says Richard Mergner, head of the Federal Nature Conservation Union (BN), about Aiwanger’s plans. The BN does not reject wind turbines in forests, but “only forests remote from nature” could be considered. In any case, a “special examination of species protection law” is required. It is not enough to reforest trees that have been felled for wind turbines elsewhere, as Aiwanger suggests, and merely to exclude nature reserves. A wind turbine in the forest “must remain the exception”. In order to push the expansion of wind energy, the 10-H rule would have to be removed and two percent of the land area would have to be designated as priority areas for wind turbines.
The two percent plans are “too stereotyped”
Ludwig Hartmann, parliamentary group leader of the Greens in the state parliament, also speaks of an “emergency straw” that Aiwanger is looking for in order to “get out of the actual wind construction freeze”. Hartmann and the Greens, who have also been fighting for the abolition of the 10-H rule for years, rely on the federal traffic light coalition for wind power. There it is becoming apparent that the SPD, Greens and FDP want to oblige each federal state to make two percent of the state’s area available for wind turbines – which would correspond to the demands of BN boss Mergner. Aiwanger finds the two percent plans “too stereotypical”.
And how does the CSU find the economics minister’s proposals? In July, Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) had already promised additional wind turbines in state forests. The reaction of the CSU Forest Minister Michaela Kaniber to Aiwanger’s plans is still not friendly. It warns against “uncontrolled paving of the forests with wind turbines” and calls for “targeted and well thought-out regulations as exceptions to the 10-H rule” instead of blanket approaches. “To erect as many wind turbines as possible in Bavaria’s forests are fine words with no real solution.”
The facilities are also good news for animals and plants, as the areas are being ecologically upgraded, Aiwanger said. Instead of tree monocultures, flowers and thistles would grow on the 50 by 50 meter building areas, which many animals such as butterflies used as a habitat. The trees felled for the wind turbines could also be reforested elsewhere.