When the Bavarian state parliament passed the 10-H rule for the construction of wind turbines in November 2014, this decision was like a blow to the advocates of the regenerative form of energy, which has been making very slow progress in Bavaria since then. But now Federal Climate Protection and Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) is blowing to catch up and tried on Thursday to persuade Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) to abandon this rule, but in the end in vain. In some communities in the district of Munich, which have stayed on the ball on the subject of wind power and are driving the construction of wind turbines in a total of three working groups (Arge), the outcome of the discussion was eagerly awaited. Your hope is now that after this political talks at least the duration of the approval process in Bavaria will be shortened.
The mayor of Pullach, Susanna Millennium (Greens), does not contest the fact that the state government wants to stick to its regulation, according to which the distance between a wind turbine and the next housing estate must be at least ten times the height of the turbines. The up to six rotors that will one day turn in Forstenrieder Park and generate electricity for around 15,000 households meet the 10-H rule. However, if the construction of wind turbines were made easier, then this could only be an advantage for the planning in Forstenrieder Park, saysexpand friend. She is chairwoman of the consortium, in which only Neuried was a member alongside Pullach, but which now also includes Baierbrunn and Schäftlarn.
A wind turbine would be enough for the electricity needs of the whole of Baierbrunn
For Baierbrunn’s mayor Patrick Ott (ÜWG), the retention of the 10-H rule is even expressly desired, at least for the next ten years. “We even insist,” he said in preliminary talks with thousand friends and Neuried’s town hall chief Harald Zipfel (SPD). Ott fears that otherwise parts of the population would not involve themselves and protests would arise, as was the case recently in Berg. When people realize after ten years that the wind turbines are not a problem for them, only then can other locations be considered, says Ott, who has calculated that one wind turbine would cover the electricity needs of his entire community. The decision to join the Arge was taken unanimously by the Baierbrunn municipal council in December.
This Monday, the consortium completed its first online meeting of the year with an expanded cast, and the Schäftlarner town hall chief Christian Fürst (CSU), who ticks similarly to Baierbrunn’s mayor when it comes to wind power, also sat at the virtual table: “It already has one Advantage if the 10-H rule has to be observed,” said Fürst and also recalled the protests in Berg against the wind turbines near the Garmisch Autobahn. But he also hopes that the state government will allow the approval process to be shortened. In his opinion, the project should be ready for planning in two years. The city and district of Starnberg and the municipality of Gauting failed to declare their membership of the Arge by the deadline of December 31. If they show interest at a later date, the majority of the Arge members must agree.
Like many of her colleagues, Mindy Konwitschny, the mayor of Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn, would like to see simplified approval procedures for wind turbines.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
By 2024, Aying’s Mayor Peter Wagner (CSU) wants the second intermunicipal wind power project in the Hofoldinger Forst, together with Sauerlach and Otterfing, to have progressed so far that the three wind turbines can be installed. From the outset, the 10-H rule was not an obstacle. If the approval procedures were accelerated, then you would also benefit from it, says Wagner. So far everything is going well, the first wind report was also very good and the people in his community support the project, which was noticed at the many information events. If it should go faster, Sauerlach’s mayor Barbara Bogner (ÜBV) notes, then the district council would also have to play along and release the areas in the forest that have been designated as landscape protection areas. Windbreaks have already created large open spaces, and Bogner says that it almost no longer needs to be cleared.
Mindy Konwitschny (SPD), the mayor of the municipality of Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn, who founded a consortium together with Egmating and Oberpframmern with the aim of building three wind turbines in the Höhenkirchner forest, is also hoping for a change in the landscape protection ordinance. “It’s not really progressing in the process right now,” she says. The problem is that in 2013 concentration areas were designated in the landscape protection area, but wind power is not explicitly permitted in the statute. “We would like us to be supported in the approval process and not fought against,” says Konwitschny and in this context speaks of “headwind caretakers” in allusion to Peter Beermann, who is on behalf of the state as a “wind caretaker” and advises the heads of town hall involved, what appreciate them in unison.
The use of wind energy in Forstenrieder Park has not progressed significantly since the starting shot with “wind caretaker” Peter Beermann and Bavaria’s Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger. The local politicians Andreas Most (left) and Harald Zipfel from Pullach and Neuried could not change that.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
For him, accelerating the immissions approval process, for example, would only be a “drop in the bucket.” You save half a year with a four to six-year project. “It would be nice if the entire project time could be halved,” says Beermann. But that is difficult because species protection is a time waster. But just the fact that Habeck’s initiative has brought the topic of wind power back into public discussion makes him happy. He is now curious to see what proposal for the expansion of wind energy the Bavarian state government will present to Habeck by March. “The CSU continues to block against 10 a.m.”
If it is up to the member of the Bundestag Florian Hahn (CSU), she will continue to do so. The reason for the slow progress in wind power is not the 10-H rule, but “low wind, low harvest and therefore low willingness to invest in it,” says Hahn.