Chancellor Scholz calls for four to five new wind turbines a day – economy

The chancellor not only wants to turn big wheels, he also wants to see big wheels: Olaf Scholz says the federal government will now tackle the expansion of wind power “like a general staff.” “We are currently preparing a roadmap of what needs to be built by when so that we can achieve our goals by 2030,” he said picture on sunday explained. Every month, progress will be discussed with the countries. “Whatever is not done on time must be made up for by 2030,” demands the Chancellor. Four to five wind turbines would have to be erected on land alone – every day.

Four to five wind turbines every day? “It’s not impossible,” says Jürgen Quentin, who keeps the construction statistics for the Onshore Wind Energy Agency. “We’ve reached these levels in seven years since 2000,” he says. “But you need the will to do it, and that on all levels.” In the previous peak year, 2017, a little more than five wind turbines were set up every day, namely a total of 1858. Two years later, this value dropped to 283 new turbines, not even 0.8 a day. Since then, the expansion has recovered a little every year, but the numbers are still a long way from the chancellor’s goal: last year, according to figures from the specialist agency, the daily average was 1.5. So he would have to triple.

At least the conditions have improved now. A new version of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) has been in force since January. It not only sets the goal of increasing the proportion of green electricity from around 48 percent at present to 80 percent by 2030. The construction of new plants is now officially in “overriding public interest”. This should speed up the approval process. An “emergency regulation” from the EU aims in the same direction: In the next year and a half, it should greatly simplify the planning of new plants, as well as compensation for interventions in nature and the environment. And finally, in December, the Federal Network Agency raised the maximum values ​​that can be paid for electricity from new wind farms. In the tenders, through which investors can vie for a state-guaranteed minimum remuneration, up to 7.35 cents per kilowatt hour can now be demanded. That’s 25 percent more than last year – to compensate for rising costs, including when building new wind farms.

It remains to be seen whether all of this will be enough to achieve the Chancellor’s goals. Just on Monday, the electricity association BDEW and the consulting firm Ernst & Young presented the new “progress monitor” for the energy transition, which only paints a cautiously optimistic picture. By 2030, almost 500 billion euros would be needed to advance the energy transition, from green electricity and grid expansion to climate-neutral gases, the heat transition and electromobility. However, only 8.6 billion euros flowed in 2021 – a good quarter of what would be needed annually.

It is not until 2032 that countries will have to allocate two percent of their land to wind power

“The expansion of renewable energies is progressing too slowly,” warns the Progress Monitor. It is true that the federal government has “actuated some real levers”, for example with the introduction of a target area of ​​two percent, which must be made available by the federal states for wind power. But the new target will not apply until 2032. “There will have to be improvements here,” says the report.

Anyway, there is progress. On Monday, Lower Saxony’s Environment Minister Christian Meyer (Greens) presented how around 2.2 percent of the state’s area could be reserved for wind turbines by 2026 – broken down by district. In addition, citizens and municipalities should be able to participate more easily in wind farms. However, the Chancellor’s largest construction sites are far from being in Lower Saxony – according to figures from the specialist agency, almost 100 wind turbines went into operation here in 2022. In the southern states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, on the other hand, there were only 23.

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