As of: 01/30/2023 4:22 p.m
It should soon be possible to expand wind turbines more quickly and easily. The Federal Cabinet has agreed on the omission of many environmental protection tests that have been necessary up to now. Solar systems and heat pumps should also move faster.
The Federal Cabinet has approved new regulations for an accelerated expansion of wind energy. According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the ministers of the traffic light coalition approved the implementation of an EU emergency regulation in a written circulation procedure.
In many cases, environmental impact assessments and species protection assessments will no longer be necessary in the future, as the Federal Ministry of Economics announced. Economics Minister Robert Habeck assured that species protection is “and will remain important”.
Changes are introduced in the Bundestag
The environmental and species protection assessments are not required for plants if a “strategic environmental assessment” has already been carried out for the designated area. In accordance with a corresponding decision by the EU energy ministers, the EU requirements for the protection of birds and habitats will also be repealed.
In December, the energy ministers cleared the way for the changes to the law in an emergency ordinance. The federal government now wants to introduce the relevant changes to the Bundestag so that they can be passed quickly and come into force. According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, they apply to approval procedures for wind turbines and power grids that begin before June 30, 2024. Approval procedures that have already started also benefit.
According to the ministry, some provisions of the EU regulation are also directly applicable. For example, there are no test specifications for the so-called repowering of existing systems and grid reinforcement measures, including solar systems.
Compensation payments for species support program possible
Minister Habeck spoke of a “wind expansion accelerator that we haven’t had before”. He expects that the federal states and the approval authorities will push ahead with the expansion of wind power “at full speed” and approve plants “quickly”. At the same time, species protection is “materially preserved”.
The draft law passed by the cabinet stipulates that authorities must ensure that wind farm operators take “reasonable and proportionate prevention and mitigation measures” and otherwise “pay financial compensation to a species aid program”.
Acceleration also for solar systems and heat pumps
In addition to wind energy, the law also aims to limit approval procedures for solar systems, for example on landfills, to three months. Here it is not necessary to check whether an environmental impact assessment is necessary. The approval for smaller heat pumps, which must be completed within one month, is also to be accelerated.