Onshore
The EU has taken steps to address the significant delays in permitting for onshore wind turbines.
Variously, this might entail a lack of staffing and digitalisation, having no clear single point of contact as a result of multiple authorities being involved, facing lengthy legal challenges, having complex regulations and inflexible permits – for example, not allowing the most up-to-date technology to be used after delays in the permitting process – and community concerns on their construction. It can often take less time to actually build a wind farm than it does to get a grant for one and, as a result, investors are being deterred from developing projects, so many of them fall through. While significant steps have been taken in Germany to overcome such hurdles, wind development is still moving slowly. In the first six months of 2022, only 235 new turbines were installed there, and there was a 15% decline in permits granted in 2021. To achieve the government’s target of employing 80% renewable electricity by 2030, about 1,750 turbines would need to be built each year – but currently the permitting process alone takes on average two years. This means that it takes between five and seven years from the point of the first filing until the actual grid-integration of a single turbine, which is too slow to meet the targets.
Small steps
“The [German] government has announced a law aimed at accelerating this process as far back as late 2021, when the coalition took office. It is ensconced in the coalition agreement – however, we are yet to see actual progress,” explains Wolfram Axthelm, the managing director of the German Federal Wind Energy Association (BWE).
World Wind Technology /
www.worldwind-technology.com
“First steps have been made with a decision [in March] that governs the implementation of the Council Regulation (EU) 2022/2577 for laying down a framework to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy,” Axthelm notes. “Additionally, zoning also remains an issue. The target of reaching a goal of net 2% of the German area for wind energy is one that we support. However, currently this can only be achieved in two steps: getting to 1.4% by 2027 and then 2% by 2032. This would essentially force authorities to busy themselves with the same issue for almost 10 years. BWE therefore calls on the government to scrap the two-stage process and instead aim for achieving the goal earlier. We believe that 2025 is an achievable goal.”
The federal states are now tasked with putting the changes made by the government in Berlin into action and delivering the necessary number of permits. But while some obstacles have been addressed on the federal level, the permitting process mostly takes place on the state level, slowing things down further. In 2023, a record 12.84GW will be available in the tender rounds, and, as Axthelm notes, “it is imperative that by the end of the year, at least 10GW of permits are available to ensure that the expansion of German wind power can happen on the necessary scale”. Indeed, only total of 2,403MW was added last year, which includes 423MW of repowering capacity.
Reduce reliance on Russia With the continent’s move away from a reliance on gas provided by Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, the need for reliable, renewable energy has
1,750 235
Number of new turbines that would need to be built each year to meet the German government’s target of employing 80% renewable electricity by 2030. WindEurope
The number of new turbines installed in Germany in the first six months of 2022, after a 15% decline in permits granted in 2021. Clean Energy Wire
21
Andrey_Popov/
Shutterstock.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45
