Multiple environmental groups, including Germanwatch, Greenpeace and the WWF, have urged Germany to set an annual onshore wind installation target of 4GW.
The groups presented a joint paper, designed to accelerate the environmentally compatible expansion of wind energy, at the Federal-State meeting in the Chancellery in Berlin.
In order to achieve the Federal Government’s current expansion targets, the organisations propose that an additional at least 4GW of wind energy should be installed onshore each year.
Voicing their concerns regarding the “slow development” of the energy transition, the associations are calling for a binding federal-state strategy that defines nationwide and country-specific electricity quantity targets for renewable energy.
“Global warming and loss of biodiversity are closely interwoven. The success of the energy turnaround is crucial for achieving our climate goals, in particular the 1.5°C goal, and thus also essential for the long-term conservation of biological diversity,” according to the environmental organisations’ joint assessment.
The associations said they are “convinced that the discussion about the dramatic collapse in wind energy expansion cannot be reduced to species protection”.
Inadequate regional planning, lack of personnel in the enforcement authorities, restrictions on air traffic control as well as the government tender design, were all cited as barriers that need to be addressed in order to ensure more onshore wind can be built.
The groups also want to see approaches that facilitate greater participation by local authorities and residents in the onshore wind development process.
The groups also pointed out that the protection of populations of species at risk of wind turbines, such as certain birds and bats, cannot be guaranteed solely by ensuring relevant protection laws are observed in individual permits.
They advised the “species protection exception” under the Federal Nature Conservation Act must be increasingly used in future.
The statement said: “The conditions for granting an exception should be clearly clarified in order to enable legally compliant application in practice that ensures species protection.
“This includes simultaneous protection through public species protection programmes and state monitoring for impact monitoring.”
A prerequisite for granting the exception must be the guaranteed non-deterioration of the affected population, said the environmental organisations. As part of species protection programmes, appropriate measures to safeguard the conservation status would have to be taken, which also take other factors such as intensive land use into account.
“From the point of view of nature conservation there are also opportunities to accelerate the expansion of wind energy and at the same time to improve the consideration of species protection and its implementation in the regions with wind energy.
“A joint offensive to accelerate the expansion of wind energy in harmony with nature and climate protection is therefore urgently overdue,” said the associations.