Polls show that popular support for wind power remains high, though concern among politicians about a... voter backlash... is on the rise... One recent government move that angered the wind industry was a plan to enforce a minimum distance of... 1,000m ...between wind masts and the nearest built-up area. According to Henrik Maatsch, energy expert at environmental group WWF,this would remove up to... 40... per cent of ...available land... for new turbines. “This has created... huge uncertainty ...for the... wind sector...,” he said.
The proposal has also caused a... row inside... the government itself - with the environment ministry demanding a less onerous approach.
The escalating fight has created... strange alliances..., with climate campaigners standing shoulder to shoulder with erstwhile enemies in the energy sector. A recent paper signed by both ...Greenpeace and the BDEW... association of energy companies urged the government to relax planning and animal conservation laws to... allow... more wind parks.
“Right now it takes... five to seven ...years before you even know whether you will be able to realise your project,” said Markus Krebber, the chief financial officer at RWE. “Germany should not forget that it is in... competition... with other countries when it comes to investment in renewables. Businesses can only... spend their euro or dollar once.... If you spend it in the US you know the plant will be up and running in a year’s time.”
EnBW, the utility building the turbines in Ober-Ramstadt, has encountered similar problems. “Authorities are now more cautious when it comes to new approvals, and?.?.?.?more and more approvals are then taken to court,” said Andreas Pick, head of project development for onshore wind at EnBW.
The projected shortfall... cannot ...be compensated for by ramping up construction of solar plants and offshore wind, analysts say. The latter face serious infrastructure challenges: with current generation capacity, Germany’s transmission network... can barely cope... with the... flow of electricity... from the wind-intensive northern coast to population centres and industrial regions further south. There are plans to expand north-south grid connections, but those are due for... completion in 2025 and 2026 ...at the earliest.