The German government has passed a law to speed up deployment of renewable energy projects.
The Federal Cabinet adopted the draft of a formulation aid for the implementation of the EU Emergency Regulation presented by Federal Economics and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck and it will now be forwarded to the Bundestag.
Federal minister Habeck said: “Today the federal government launched a wind expansion accelerator that we have never had before. The processes for expanding wind turbines on land and at sea are becoming significantly faster.
“This also applies to the expansion of the power lines. In this way, we are once again increasing the dynamics of the expansion of renewable energies.
“Together with the reform of the EEG, the increase in the maximum rates in the tenders for wind and solar and a number of other changes, we have paved the way for acceleration.”
The EU Emergency Regulation was decided on 19 December in the EU Council of Energy Ministers and enables a significant acceleration in renewable energy projects in member states.
The new measures cover approval procedures for onshore wind, offshore wind turbines and power grids with a capacity of 110 kV or more that begin before June 30, 2024. Approval procedures that have already started can also benefit from the simplified procedures.
The new laws also mean that for developments that have already undergone a strategic environmental assessment (SEA), the environmental impact assessment (EIA) and species protection obligation are no longer required in the approval procedure test.
Solar energy will also be affected, with the duration of approval processes for the installation of solar energy systems (including rooftop PV and PV on man-made structures) shortened to three months. The national approval authorities for PV systems on artificial structures will not have to check whether the project requires an EIA or if a special EIA should be carried out.
The new laws also seek to accelerate the expansion of heat pumps by limiting the duration of the approval process to one month for the installation of heat pumps with an electrical output of less than 50 MW and to three months for geothermal heat pumps.