“Repowering” New boost for wind power?

Status: 22.06.2021 3:09 p.m.

The expansion of wind power has not progressed as planned for years. Now the grand coalition has agreed on a number of measures that should give the industry a new boost. This week, the new Federal Climate Protection Act should pass the Bundestag and Bundesrat. It stipulates that Germany will become greenhouse gas neutral by 2045 – five years earlier than planned. By 2030, 65 percent of climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions are to be saved compared to 1990. In order to achieve this goal, along with other measures, renewable energies must also make a major contribution. Wind power is one of them. The planned changes are essentially about making it easier to replace existing wind turbines, known as repowering. The new regulation is intended to facilitate the approval of new windmills at old locations and thus enable repowering that maintains the location. This also applies to wind farms that reach up to 350 meters from residential areas – provided that the loads from the new systems are not higher than the old ones. The aim is to make better use of existing wind sites with more modern system technology, said the politicians Matthias Miersch from the SPD and Stephan Stracke from the CDU.

There is still a lack of space

Lothar Schulze, CEO of the Wind Power Plants Association, maintains that repowering is facilitated “basically makes sense”, but criticizes the unchanged strict requirements for species protection. In addition, there is still a lack of space for new wind farms if the goal set by the federal government of reserving two percent of Germany’s land area for wind farms is to be achieved. Currently 0.9 percent of the area is designated for this, but only 0.5 percent can be used with modern systems. “This means that another 1.5 percent of the federal territory is missing, which means that a giant step has to be taken in the next legislative period”, said Schulze in conversation with tagesschau.de .

SPD parliamentary deputy Miersch also regretted that no agreement had been reached on binding land commitments for wind power. But at least he spoke of one “bridge” in the next legislative period. Green parliamentary group leader Anton Hofreiter criticized that there was only one “a couple of small funding programs” instead of “fundamental reforms”. “Very important and positive” On the other hand, association chief Schulze finds the increase in the tender volume for wind power to four gigawatts agreed for the coming year. However, it is only one “small compensation” the deterioration that has taken place since 2017. In fact, not all tenders were actually implemented between 2017 and 2020. “We would therefore have liked a perspective beyond 2022”, says Schulze. But this task will probably only be taken over by the new government.

Further loosening is necessary

Overall, however, the wind power industry is satisfied with the planned innovations. Material errors and limitations would be corrected. Despite the still too low approval procedures, the quantities were sufficient for 2022 and, due to the catch-up, also in the following years. The next government must, however, continue to promote the expansion of wind energy through further easing, also in the field of species protection, in order to increase the output to 5,000 MW per year, said Association Board Member Schulze.

Nevertheless, the controversial cases in the construction of new wind turbines have steadily increased in recent years. Since 2018, the expansion of wind energy has stagnated at 1,000 to 1,500 MW per year. In addition to the growing resistance from the population, this is also due to the different administrative practices from state to state. The industry also has the impression that new hurdles are always being sought. In the meantime, monument protection has also been included in the approval process for wind turbines. The compromise reached between the Union and the SPD over the past year also caused criticism from the industry Minimum distance from wind turbines to residential buildings . After that, each federal state can now determine which distance is permitted. This can be 1000 meters or less

Nationwide electricity generation Coal is overtaking wind power again

Status: 06/11/2021 1:53 p.m.

A spring without storms has led to a decline in wind energy. Coal grew to become the most important energy source in the country in the first quarter. At the same time, the demand for electricity is increasing, says Minister of Economic Affairs Altmaier. Electricity production using coal in Germany overtook wind power again in the first quarter of 2021. According to the Federal Statistical Office, a “windless spring” resulted in almost a third less electricity from wind power. According to the authorities, the gap has been filled by increasing electricity generation from coal and natural gas power plants. From January to March inclusive, a total of 138.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity was generated and fed into the grid. According to preliminary results from the Federal Office, that was 2.6 percent less than in the first quarter of 2020.

Coal, gas and nuclear power dominate

While the electricity in the same period last year came mainly from renewable energy sources such as wind power, biogas and sun (51.4 percent), coal, gas and nuclear energy dominated at the beginning of this year (59.3 percent). With a share of 28.9 percent of the total amount of electricity fed into the grid, coal was the most important energy source for electricity generation in Germany in the first quarter of this year. The amount of electricity generated in coal-fired power plants increased by more than a quarter (26.8 percent) to almost 40 billion kilowatt hours compared to the same period in the previous year. The amount of electricity from natural gas increased by 24 percent to 22.5 billion kilowatt hours. In contrast, there was a strong minus of almost a third (32.4 percent) in wind power: The feed-in of 33.5 billion kilowatt hours was the lowest value for this energy source for a first quarter since 2018. In the two previous years, there was wind power significantly higher values ​​achieved due to strong spring storms.

Altmaier sees increased demand for electricity

Meanwhile, Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier admitted that his department had so far underestimated how much the demand for electricity in Germany is likely to increase in the course of the energy transition. “Due to the more stringent climate targets in Germany and the EU, we have to assume a significantly higher electricity demand than was previously assumed,” said the CDU politician to Wirtschaftswoche. “My house will submit new calculations for this.” Altmaier said that more energy must be produced, “from all available renewable sources: wind power and photovoltaics”. Altmaier said that he would present specific proposals on how offshore wind power on the high seas and other renewable energies could be expanded more than previously planned. For “green hydrogen” for use in the steel industry or the expansion of electromobility, many experts believe that significantly more electricity will be required in the coming years, which should come from renewable energies.

SPD puts pressure on

The SPD criticized Altmaier: “For months now, the SPD and the entire German industry and energy sector have been calling on the Federal Minister of Economics in vain to anchor realistic electricity requirements and a correspondingly ambitious expansion of wind power and photovoltaics in the EEG,” said parliamentary group vice-president Matthias Miersch of the dpa news agency. If Altmaier now announces new proposals, which can only then be implemented by the next federal government, it is “poor” and unworthy of a federal minister of economics, according to Miersch. The SPD had already submitted proposals months ago which, based on realistic electricity consumption, determine the associated expansion paths for green electricity up to 2030 and contain funds for acquiring space and accelerating it. “We could implement this next week,” said the politician.