In future, the Bavarian State Forests will no longer be dependent on the approval of the respective municipality for wind energy projects in their forests. This was announced by Bavaria’s Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Wind farm plans in state forests could therefore no longer be overturned by referendum, as happened in the Upper Bavarian municipality of Mehring at the end of January.
Ten of the originally planned 40 wind turbines of the controversial Altötting wind farm were to have been built there. In a second referendum on Sunday, residents in nearby Marktl voted by a majority of 60 percent in favor of four turbines to be built on Marktl land. Aiwanger, the state forestry service and the project developer Qair had previously canceled three planned turbines in order to appease residents. Aiwanger had also already hinted at a departure from the so-called municipal clause, but at the same time assured that it would continue to apply to the Altötting wind farm.
“If you address the concerns of the local people and enter into a dialogue with them about the importance of expanding wind energy, you can also create a basis for large wind projects in the Free State. acceptance achieve,” Aiwanger said late on Sunday evening after the vote in Marktl. He had also expressed himself in a similar way in previous years.
However, Aiwanger wants to and can save himself all the tedious debates in the future if the supervisory board of the state forests, which he now leads himself, were to revise a decision from 2011. This could happen in the coming weeks, said Aiwanger. Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) also backed the plans. “We have a majority,” he said, referring to the supervisory board, which is mainly made up of representatives of the state government.
The so-called municipal clause that has been in force so far prohibits state forests from determining locations for wind turbines against the will of the municipalities. However, its purpose has been “reversed” if municipalities initially support a project, but then “at some point at the wrong time a citizens’ initiative comes along” and renders all expensive plans obsolete. Investors will therefore eventually “give a wide berth” to state forests and instead erect their wind turbines in private forests, where the municipalities have no right of veto.
Although Aiwanger assured that wind turbines in the state forest would continue to be planned in “closest coordination with the affected municipalities,” his initiative immediately drew criticism from the Bavarian Association of Municipalities. Its president, Uwe Brandl (CSU), expressly dislikes the fact that “announcements are being made without us having been discussed.” If it was just a matter of not letting local citizens’ initiatives bring down wind farm plans, then, in Brandl’s view, “there would of course have been completely different options” – for example, by generally exempting projects of outstanding public interest such as wind turbines or flood dams from referendums.
At the same time, Brandl signaled that the municipalities could waive their right of veto if they were also given a kind of first access right to the wind turbine sites for their own companies or local cooperatives. In Brandl’s view, such projects should primarily serve the common good. If the added value remains in the region, this is the best way to gain acceptance among residents.