According to the Bavarian Wind Atlas, the air flow sweeps over the corridors in the Munich area at an altitude of 160 meters at an average of 18 kilometers per hour. It stirs up a bit of dust here, shakes twigs and branches there and in summer en passant delights the people who live here with its cooling freshness. They appreciate this, especially on scorching hot days, the frequency of which increases steadily in the course of climatic changes.
According to the declared will of the communities of Pullach and Neuried, the wind will soon be the driving force in the fight against climate change by keeping up to six rotors running in Forstenrieder Park, which can generate clean electricity for almost 15,000 households. The two municipalities have already founded a working group for this purpose and are now trying to get as many supporters as possible on board. According to the current status, Schäftlarn and Baierbrunn are interested in joining the consortium, if you only think about the form of participation in the Munich district office, while you are apparently still on hold in the city and in the Starnberg district office as well as in Gauting.
There are still question marks about the realization of the planned wind farm in a forest along the Garmisch Autobahn. A site security agreement has already been signed with the Bavarian State Forests, which have been holding on for a long time. Above all, however, a performance audit and a species protection investigation are still pending. And after the wind turbines are to be placed in a landscape protection area, an exemption must be obtained from the Lower Nature Conservation Authority.
Susanna Tausendfreund (Greens), Pullach’s mayor and chairwoman of the Arge Windkraft, looks ahead with cautious optimism. A rough preliminary investigation has shown that the envisaged location is very suitable and the project is economically and ecologically well conceivable, she reports. She regards the support from “Windkümmerer” Peter Beermann, who has been advising the town hall chiefs since he started work in the course of the “Aufwind” wind energy offensive initiated by Bavaria’s Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) in 2019, as extremely advantageous and accompanies the public debates in order to give the complex and likely conflict-laden expansion of wind power a boost.
Like last week when he presented the project to the committee and visitors in a district committee in Thalkirchen-Obersendling-Forstenried-Fürstenried-Solln, but also made it clear that the wind turbines in Forstenrieder Park are far from being dry are. All those responsible for public concerns would still have to be listened to and how the population would react to the wind turbines that protruded far beyond the tree line.
Compliance with the 10-H rule, according to which the distance between a wind turbine and the next residential area must be ten times the height of the systems, is guaranteed in Forstenrieder Park with an area of 37 square kilometers. It will still take a while for the excavators to roll in; the species and nature conservation studies and the wind measurements alone each took a year, but could take place in parallel, said Beermann to the SZ. As a windminder, he is in close contact with municipal, city and district committees from the start, and he wants to have all the talks by the end of 2021, “then you can see more clearly”.
So far, only Pullach and Neuried have been confirmed as consortium members. More of an exclamation mark than a question mark stands behind the accession of the communities of Schäftlarn and Baierbrunn. For Schäftlarn’s mayor Christian Fürst (CSU), this is also an important step in order to be able to have a say in the planning. The question of whether and to what extent his community will participate in financing is only interesting once the planning process has been completed. Baierbrunn’s town hall chief Patrick Ott (ÜWG) said it was clear that his community would join, one was still waiting for clearer facts.
The district administrator has always been beating the drum
It is certain that the district of Munich will be involved. District Administrator Christoph Göbel (CSU) has always been promoting the project and even asks local decision-makers to contact neighboring municipalities. The project should be on the agenda again at the next meeting of the Committee on Energy Transition, Agriculture and Environment on November 16. According to the district office spokeswoman Christine Spiegel, the district councils will also deal with how the district will support the project. Pullach’s mayor Tausendfreund assumes that the district will not join the consortium, but will still bear a substantial part of the expert’s costs.
Not very likely, but still under discussion, the participation of the city and district of Starnberg and the community of Gauting is still under discussion. Windkümmerer Beermann had already been with him, reported District Administrator Stefan Frey (CSU). The project is interesting, but if you take part in it, the district and the two municipalities should also benefit from it and not just be onlookers. “If we see added value for ourselves, then we can continue talking,” then the topic would be discussed in the district’s environmental committee, said Frey. Beermann wanted to come to him again on the matter.
Neuried’s third mayor Dieter Maier (Greens) has already approached him, reports Starnberg’s mayor Patrick Janik. He had informed him about the project, but the city was not explicitly asked to participate. Neuried’s mayor Harald Zipfel (SPD) no longer believes that Gauting will jump on the bandwagon after a visit to the neighboring municipality. The financial situation of the community is not rosy, and the Gautingers their geothermal project is more important, said Zipfel.
Windkümmerer Beermann does not want to speculate how high the costs for the wind turbines in Forstenrieder Park will be. According to the report, the three wind turbines planned in the Höhenkirchen forest would cost 20 million euros. But one thing is certain: whoever will be members of the consortium at the end of the day, the citizens should be allowed to participate financially in the project.