“State government decides on controversial wind power decree”

The government coalition of conservative CDU and pro-business FDP in Germany’s most populous federal state North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) has passed legislation on the limitation of wind power expansion, Welt Online reports. NRW’s economy minister Andreas Pinkwart conceded that the plans will put the brakes on wind power. But he said tighter regulation was necessary to maintain public acceptance given the numerous citizen group protests against further expansion of the technology. The new rules define a minimum distance for turbines of 1,500 metres to the next residential area and prohibit construction in forested areas, the article says. More than 60 companies from the wind power industry recently criticised the government’s plans, saying it would reduce the area available for the renewable energy source by 90 percent and threatened the success of Germany’s Energiewende as a whole.

Find the article in German here.

Read the CLEW article Booming German wind power sector fears 2019 cliff on the industry’s imminent future prospects.

See the CLEW factsheets Fighting windmills: When growth hits resistance and German onshore wind power – output, business and perspectives for more information.