Can you build wind turbines in the forest? Hardly any question has recently polarized more in the Ebersberg district than this. This is also shown by the latest political pirouette by Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder. The CSU man has now announced that it will make it easier to place wind turbines in Bavarian state forests. And so the debate about the pros and cons is reopened.
An interactive map of the Bavarian state forests shows the state (dark green) and private forests (light green). In the regions southeast of Munich, it is easy to see what Söder’s idea could mean for forests and wind power. For example, for the Hofoldinger Forst, which motorists know mainly from the A8 through the windshield. Or the Ebersberger Forst, which is not crossed by any motorway, which is why this forest area has earned the reputation of being special, because it is particularly large and particularly uninterrupted (apart from two state roads).
The Hofoldinger Forst, through which the A8 Autobahn runs, and the Ebersberger Forst, south and east of Munich respectively.
(Photo: Source: Bavarian State Forests, Editing: SZ)
Both forests, the Hofoldinger and the Ebersberger, have in common that they have a very high proportion of state forest. Should Söder’s plans come about, these forests would be severely affected – in the sense of: depending on how pointedly Söder’s law can be implemented – quite a few wind turbines could be built there. The question is: where exactly?
Should Söder’s ideas come up, opponents of wind power in forests would have “one less really relevant argument”
The answer to this is not easy for observers, if anything it is difficult. “Some tremble, others cheer,” says Heinz Utschig, head of the Wasserburg forestry operation and thus responsible for 7,500 hectares of state forest in the 9,000-hectare Ebersberg forest – and for another 2,000 hectares of state forest in the Glonn district. He counts himself neither among the trembling nor among the jubilant.
From his point of view, the status of this forest is a central point for any wind power plans of the Prime Minister in the Ebersberg Forest. So far it has been an almost impossible project to build wind turbines in a landscape protection area. In order for that to change, according to Utschig, “this protective force would have to be effectively undermined”. If this were to happen, the opponents of wind power in forests would have “one less valid argument”.
The events surrounding the referendum in the Ebersberg Forest, in which the residents of the district voted for up to five wind turbines in the Ebersberg Forest a good year ago, show that it is already theoretically possible to change such a status. It took ten years of preparation to get to this point. And if the plants are built at all, it will probably be a few more years before they can start operating.
Quite a few are convinced that wind turbines in forests in general and in the Ebersberg Forest in particular should by no means have any place. One of them is Kerstin Mertens, spokeswoman for the Ebersberger Forest Protection Association. From their point of view, it “makes no sense at all to build wind turbines here”. Lack of wind strength and because of the high price. Because forest stores CO2 and cold. Should the protection status of the Ebersberg forest be revoked by Södersche decree, “we will take legal action,” says Mertens. According to her research, this is still possible.
Quite a few observers find it plausible to place wind turbines not far from freeways and industrial areas
Nobody knows exactly what is coming and how it will be. Not even Olaf Rautenberg from the Ebersberg district group of the Federal Nature Conservation Agency, which had stood up for the wind turbine project in the Ebersberg Forest in the run-up to the referendum. “In principle, that’s a good idea,” says Rautenberg. “What exactly is to be achieved is unclear.” The prime minister makes insinuations without going into detail. “A few years ago he wanted 1,500 wind turbines, now 800. After no more were built at all because of 10 H, he had to think.”
Southwest of the Ebersberger Forst lies the Hofoldinger Forst, which offers a third ingredient in the attempt to combine forest and wind into an energetic mixture that is missing in the Ebersberger forests: a motorway. If you ask around among those involved in the debate, quite a few of them see a starting point here. So on motorways in general or, if necessary, through forests. Wind turbines along a route where they cause the least damage because a lot has already been done. Because of disturbances caused by noise or light and shade, disfigurement of the landscape or other impairments. Industrial and commercial areas are also often mentioned as candidates.
According to reports, decisions are to be made and laws amended in the coming weeks, from the Munich state parliament to the Berlin Bundestag. It is not unlikely that the term “10 H” will also be used, which in Bavaria describes the exclusive prohibition clause for wind turbines based on a distance requirement from settlements. Or as the Wasserburg forestry manager Heinz Utschig puts it: “Where it doesn’t bother you, where there’s constant noise anyway, 10 H is counterproductive.” According to Utschig, being more flexible would make it easier to find good locations. “Otherwise we are deep in the forest, where it hurts us all.”