Renewable development must minimise impact on wildlife – govt agency

Germany must pay more attention to the impact of renewable power development on habitats and species, the country’s Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) says. Wind, solar and bioenergy plants are necessary to fight climate change, the BfN says in a press release, but the amount of land they need means they are increasingly infringing on ecologically sensitive areas such as forests and grasslands. The agency says Germany needs to increase its focus on energy efficiency in order to reduce the demand for renewable power,  and therefore space for its generation.

“Renewable energies are a solution and a problem at the same time,” BfN president Beate Jessel said at the presentation of the study, according to media reports. “But an ecologically sound renewable roll-out is possible,” she added, pointing to untapped potential of rooftop PV arrays, for example.

Renewable energy installations – including more than 29,000 wind turbines and 1.5 million PV arrays – currently generate around 40 percent of the electricity Germany uses. The country plans to increase that share to 65 percent by 2030, and to at least 80 percent by 2050.