The adoption of an amendment to Austria’s Environmental Impact Assessment Act will help to accelerate planning of wind farms in the country.
The National Council in Austria, with the votes of the ÖVP, Greens, SPÖ and NEOS parties, adopted a long-awaited amendment to the Environmental Impact Assessment Act that will address “a large number of obstacles that wind farm planners face in reality”, said Ursula Nährer, legal expert at IG Windkraft.
The new EIA Act will simplify and speed up approval procedures without compromising the quality of reviews.
The EIA Act applies to wind power projects with a capacity of more than 30MW.
In alpine regions, this limit is reduced to 15MW.
In cases where supra-local wind energy spatial planning exists, no dedication by the municipalities will be required in the future.
Nährer added: “Now we need to increase the capacities of the licensing authorities and administrative courts.
“In addition, the federal states have a responsibility to quickly allocate sufficient land for wind power expansion and thus contribute to solving the energy and climate crisis.”