The district of Munich has actually already dutifully done its homework, but it probably doesn’t have to hand it in after all. In June, the energy and environment committee of the district council cleared the way for a so-called zoning concept for the construction of wind turbines in Forstenrieder Park, which should be included in the district ordinance on the landscape protection area. But now the federal government has, so to speak, overtaken the district with an amendment to the law. An amendment to the Federal Nature Conservation Act will come into force on February 1, 2023, which will make it possible for wind turbines in protected landscape areas to be approved and will ensure that these protected areas can also be included in the search for areas for new rotors. This will also make the construction of wind turbines much easier in the district of Munich.
The district council’s advance was a reaction to the so-called Easter package from Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens), which stipulated that the expansion of wind energy on land must also be massively promoted and that two percent of the land area must be made available for this purpose. In the district of Munich, however, this would not be possible – also due to the 10-H regulation that is still in force in Bavaria – if the landscape protection areas such as Forstenrieder Park or Hofoldinger Forst were not included.
Wind turbines with a total height of up to 275 meters can be built
The zoning concept for Forstenrieder Park was flanked by a report from the Technical University of Munich. And this report came to the conclusion that, especially in the so-called exception zone, the construction of rotors is possible without losing the protective effect of the landscape protection area; In addition, a decision-making zone was defined within which the construction of wind turbines could be approved as part of a case-by-case assessment – this zone is mainly located at the edges of the forest. According to the report, the exception zone should be around 1872 hectares in size, which corresponds to 38 percent of the total area of the landscape protection area.
It was also examined what effects the erection of wind turbines with a total height of up to 275 meters would have on the landscape. The experts came to the conclusion that this would hardly be disturbed. The balance of nature within the Forstenrieder Park would also suffer little damage, since the forest is already heavily managed and is traversed by both the motorway and a high-voltage power line.
The internal evaluation of the experts in the Munich district office also comes to the conclusion that the construction of rotors is tolerable, even mandatory – also to achieve the German climate goals. The district of Munich also has to do more for this. According to the latest data, renewable energies have hardly played a role in the district so far, in 2018 the share of renewables was just over 15 percent. According to the district office, the climate targets can only be achieved with wind and solar energy.
On Tuesday, September 13, the Committee on Energy, Agriculture and the Environment will once again deal with the Forstenrieder Park conservation area. Then the new changes in the law will also play a role. With the “Law on Immediate Measures for an Accelerated Expansion of Renewable Energies and Other Measures in the Electricity Sector”, the federal government has, for example, made the construction of wind turbines on land “overriding public interest”, which not only makes the importance of renewable energies visible, but above all to reduce bureaucracy in their approval. This could also give wind power in the district of Munich a whole new boost.