Wind farm operators often ignore regulations on dismantling old turbines – report

German wind farm operators often “systematically” ignore regulations on dismantling turbines, leaving several tonnes of concrete in the ground, Carsten Dierig and Daniel Wetzel write on Welt Online. Most landowners agree to have only a fraction of the baseplate removed “in return for decent compensation payment,” the article says. “To make matters worse, this violation of rules is often rubberstamped by the administrative district’s authorities,” they claim, adding that the wind power lobby managed to limit mandatory removal to a depth of 2.5 metres. Many “clueless” investors reckoned on low costs for disposing of retired turbines and now face substantial expenses that could “further reduce their already low returns on investments,” the authors say.

Find the article in German here (paywall).

See the CLEW factsheet From survey to harvest: how to build a windfarm in Germany for more information.