Thanks to shorter processes, the expansion of renewable energies should run faster in the future. Economics Minister Habeck sees progress especially in the field of solar energy. However, the course of the legislative process has met with harsh criticism in Parliament.
The expansion of renewable energies is to be significantly accelerated with the help of simplified procedures. That was decided by the Bundestag in Berlin. Immediately afterwards, the law also passed the Federal Council. Among other things, it is about the implementation of an EU regulation limited to the end of June next year.
The new regulations provide for leaner procedures for the planning and approval of wind turbines on land and at sea, for connection lines for offshore wind farms, for solar systems on open spaces and for the electricity grids. This means that tests on the environmental compatibility and the effects of wind turbines on species protection can be omitted if similar tests have already been carried out when the area for wind energy was designated. In the future, authorities will also have to inform the public online about plans.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck emphasized the need for acceleration in the Bundesrat. The expansion of solar energy is progressing, “we’re not there yet for grids and wind,” said the Green politician. In terms of legislation, the most important thing for the expansion has now been achieved. “So the ball is very much in the hands of the approving authorities,” stressed Habeck. “Anyone who does not approve now will miss the situation.”
With the new specifications, a few thousand pages of paper could be saved per wind turbine and one to two years of time per wind farm, explained SPD MP Bengt Bergt in the Bundestag. Lukas Köhler from the FDP announced: “We will be faster and we will be cheaper.” This also benefits Germany as a business location, said Christina-Johanne Schröder from the Greens, since electricity from renewable energy is cheaper in the long run. All this serves to protect the climate and helps to deal with the consequences of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine for the energy supply, argued MPs.
The Federal Association of Energy and Water Management (BDEW) also praised the significantly simplified approval process. The chairwoman of the BDEW executive board, Kerstin Andreae, would have liked the authorities to have even clearer guidelines in order to avoid delays. In order to advance the expansion of renewable energies, a follow-up regulation is also needed after 2024.
The general manager of the German Association of Cities, Helmut Dedy, also demanded this. He recalled that by 2030, at least 80 percent of Germany’s electricity consumption should be covered by renewables. “To do this, wind and solar energy must be expanded three times faster than before. That won’t happen overnight and it won’t happen in the next 15 months either.”
Representatives of the opposition expressed harsh criticism of the procedure. After the traffic light factions SPD, Greens and FDP agreed on the new rules at the beginning of the week, a hearing took place on Wednesday for which experts could hardly have prepared. Parallel to this hearing, the vote had already taken place in another committee, several MPs complained. “The participation rights of Parliament are being trampled on here,” said CDU MP Thomas Gebhart. Such a procedure weakens the acceptance of the law, explained the left MP Susanne Hennig-Wellsow, the Afd MP Roger Beckamp called the process “a single farce”.
Habeck apologized primarily to the Union for the processes. The drafting of the law could have gone faster. “It wasn’t good what happened there,” he said. Katrin Uhlig from the Greens said Germany had to catch up with the implementation. The EU emergency regulation for faster procedures in the expansion of renewable energies only applies for 18 months and came into force at the end of December.
