Germany's wind power acceleration legislation could be delayed due to formality
Der Spiegel / Clean Energy Wire
The German government’s push for accelerated wind power capacity growth could be delayed because of insufficient time for stakeholder and ministerial participation, news magazine Der Spiegel reports. The proposed wind power bills aiming to establish a compromise between species protection and easier turbine construction have been vetoed by justice minister Marco Buschmann from the Free Democrat Party (FDP) while being consulted by the ministries. The justice ministry said that civil society and other stakeholders had only been given 24 hours to comment on the draft bills, when they normally have up to three weeks to do so. FDP politician Carina Konrad told the magazine that the reason for the short deadline was a delay by the environment department and the economy and climate department (both led by Green Party ministers) in tabling the bills due to difficulties in finding a compromise.
The German wind energy organisation BWE said it is nevertheless confident that the draft bills will be agreed upon within the government in the next weeks, and will afterwards proceed in the parliamentary process before the summer break, BWE managing director Wolfram Axthelm said on Friday.
In order to initiate a new wind power expansion boom needed for its ambitious renewable power targets, the economy and climate ministry announced in early 2022 that it would seek to pass legislation slashing planning times and other hurdles for wind turbine construction before the summer break. This schedule could now become difficult to meet, Spiegel writes.
