Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – The green-black coalition in the southwest wants to accelerate the expansion of renewable energies in the state with new guidelines for regional planning. As Ulm’s “Südwest Presse” reports, the draft for an “accompanying law to the regional planning offensive” provides for climate protection and climate adaptation to be defined as new planning guidelines in spatial planning. This is intended to remove bureaucratic hurdles for designating new locations for wind power and solar energy.
Green parliamentary group leader Andreas Schwarz told the newspaper that the law would open “a kind of fast lane for the expansion of renewable energies”. His CDU colleague Manuel Hagel was also convinced: “With the regional planning offensive we are making another big leap.” The draft therefore provides for the future construction of wind turbines and photovoltaic systems on regional green spaces. These include green strips next to roads or undeveloped areas that separate communities from one another.
The coalition wants to limit the possibility of delaying objections, the newspaper continues. With the changes, the government wants to achieve its self-imposed goal of reserving at least two percent of the country’s area for ground-mounted photovoltaics and wind power by 2025.
The southwest is lagging behind, especially in the expansion of wind power. Up to 1,000 new wind turbines are supposed to be built in the coming years, at least half of them in the state forest. According to the German Wind Energy Association and the VDMA Power Systems trade association, only five new wind turbines were installed in the southwest in the first half of the year. At the end of June, 761 wheels turned in Baden-Württemberg. With the expansion of green electricity from wind and sun, climate goals are to be achieved and dependence on fossil energies such as Russian gas reduced.
