Schwerin (dpa / mv) – Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Environment Minister Till Backhaus (SPD) has confirmed the will of the state government to accelerate the expansion of wind power use. With changes in the procedure, the time from the application to the approval of wind farms should be reduced from an average of 24 to 7 months. “The procedures must become more efficient,” said Backhaus on Wednesday in the state parliament in Schwerin. A draft law has been submitted to Parliament, according to which the State Offices for Agriculture and the Environment are to take over the legal audits of nature and species protection from 2023 instead of the district administrations.
According to Backhaus, lengthy examinations of nature conservation issues are often the reason for the massive delays. There are currently applications for 900 wind turbines in the country. The climate crisis and the energy crisis resulting from the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine would require swift action. The procedural specifications would be observed, but the speed of processing should be increased with additional staff. Instead of a total of 8 experts in the districts, 30 employees would be responsible for this in the state offices, said Backhaus. The first positions have been advertised.
However, this was met with criticism from the CDU. “What do we still have to decide in the state parliament?” asked MP Beate Schlupp, referring to the legislative process that was just beginning. The first employees were to be hired on January 1st, but the law would not be passed until the end of January. Schlupp also warned that with the construction of more wind farms, the already high grid fees in the north-east would continue to rise.
Thore Stein from the AfD parliamentary group referred to the lack of lines to bring the electricity from the north to large consumers in the south. The storage capacities were also far from sufficient. “A lull lasting several days cannot be bridged in this way,” said Stein, renewing his party’s fundamental criticism of the planned energy transition.
Speakers from the Greens, FDP, Left and SPD supported the efforts of the state government to accelerate wind power expansion. However, Hannes Damm from the Greens called for an overall concept to deal with the energy and climate crisis. With the ten-point plan for wind energy expansion, his parliamentary group submitted a proposal.
According to federal guidelines, 1.4 percent of the land area in the north-east is to be designated as suitable areas for wind farms by 2027, and 2.1 percent by 2032. According to Backhaus, it is currently 0.8 percent. In many regions there is massive resistance to new wind farms.
