Actually, the presentation on the wall of the Zorneding primary school gym should have made the local councilors happy. Their faces, however, remained mostly dark in view of the content. Susanne Bauer from the Planning Association for the Outer Economic Area of Munich was a guest at the committee’s most recent meeting to present the site concept she had developed for open-space photovoltaic systems. Hardly anyone shone as brightly as the sun in the pictures shown – on the contrary. The local councils would have wanted significantly more space for solar energy on site than the concept now envisages. Nevertheless, the plan presented should serve as a basis for corresponding energy transition projects.
Before the committee came to this consensus, however, city planner Bauer had to listen to pithy words from Zornedinger local politics. “The energy transition has not yet reached the minds of those who are responsible for it,” complained SPD municipal councilor and second mayor Bianka Poschenrieder. Franz Lenz (free voters) spoke of “preventive planning” and Peter Pernsteiner (FDP) described the fact that there are more areas for gravel quarrying than for solar systems in the municipal area as “a bit crazy”.
Five locations in the municipal area are suitable for PV systems
In fact, the areas that the expert from the planning association has identified as suitable for PV systems are not particularly large at first glance: one area is in the south-east of the municipality at the entrance to the main road, another along the state road 2081, two thin strips are located in the south on Wolfersberger Straße, a very small area is in the extreme west of the municipal area and a fifth location is in a field northeast of Zornedinger train station. Conversely, this means that all other areas in the municipal area are only suitable to a limited extent or not at all for the construction of solar systems.
As Susanne Bauer explained to the municipal councils, the draft concept is based on various technical principles. According to this, when building the PV systems, a certain buffer must be maintained for certain uses: At least 50 meters from forest areas because of the risk of windthrow, 100 meters from settlements for reasons of noise protection and the possible dazzling effect and 15 meters from roads depending on their condition , 20 or 40 meters. However, these so-called no-cultivation zones caused a certain lack of understanding in the committee. “What kind of noise do PV systems make?” asked Bianka Poschenrieder, who expressed her annoyance that the municipality had to follow what she considered to be “nonsensical guidelines”.
In this context, the deputy mayor also asked why compensation areas had been classified as unsuitable. The specialist planner Bauer replied that these were usually elaborately ecologically prepared, which would then have to be reversed by building on them. Meanwhile, Wilhelm Ficker (free voters) advocated using the “useless area” on the railway embankment for photovoltaics. According to Bauer, that is conceivable in principle, but the land belonged to Deutsche Bahn, with which negotiations had to be held.
The municipality has the planning authority for the systems
In general, if you take a closer look at the draft concept, there are probably significantly more areas for the use of solar energy than those classified as suitable by the planning association. Those that have been classified as conditionally suitable. According to Bauer, there are criteria in these areas that speak against solar panels, but also some in favor of them. “As a community, you have planning authority for PV systems,” says the expert, who described her concept as a preliminary stage for a possible land use plan. When applications for solar systems are received in the town hall, it is easier to decide whether they can also be approved.
Mayor Piet Mayr (CSU) also picked out this aspect: “The municipal council now knows what the legal basis is and we can now derive something from it.” However, the expert opinion of the planning association is not yet binding. This should now be written as an official report and serve the community as support for their climate policy goals, or as Mayr said: “We now know where and what can be done.”