Translation: Cabinet decides on accelerator for wind and grid expansion – EU emergency regulation is implemented – procedures are even faster

MIL OSI translation. Region: Germany/Germany –

Source: Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy

January 30, 2023 – Press release – Networks and network expansion

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The procedures for expanding wind energy on land, wind energy at sea and for offshore connection lines and power grids are once again being significantly accelerated. To this end, the Federal Cabinet today adopted the draft of a formulation aid for the implementation of the so-called EU Emergency Regulation (Regulation EU 2022/2577) presented by Federal Economics and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck. It will now be forwarded to the Bundestag. Federal Minister Habeck: “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 federal states and the approval authorities now have the legal basis to push ahead with the expansion of wind power and to approve plants quickly. I am sure that they will do so now, after all the triple urgency is obvious: Renewables are climate protection, they are a question of location, they mean security.” The minister also made it clear: “Acceleration is absolutely necessary. But it is also clear that species protection is and will remain important. Species protection is materially protected. There will continue to be protective and compensatory measures.” The so-called EU emergency regulation was adopted by the EU Council of Energy Ministers on December 19 and enables a significant acceleration in the member states. It is now being implemented in national law through amendments to the Wind Energy Area Requirement Act, the Wind Energy at Sea Act and the Energy Industry Act. For this purpose, the cabinet today decided on a drafting aid that is to be included in the parliamentary procedure for amending the Spatial Planning Act. The following core content is planned: Area of application: The ordinance applies to all approval procedures for onshore wind turbines, 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 simplifications. Simplified approval procedures for onshore wind turbines, offshore wind turbines and grid infrastructure projects in designated renewable energy and grid areas: For designated renewable energy and grid areas that have already undergone a strategic environmental assessment (SEA), the approval procedure is omitted the obligation to carry out an environmental impact assessment (EIA) and a species protection assessment. In order to protect species protection issues, the competent authority ensures that the operator carries out appropriate and proportionate avoidance and reduction measures. In particular, if such measures do not exist, operators must provide financial compensation in a species support program. The assessment is based on existing data. The requirements of the bird protection, fauna-flora-habitat and EIA directives for species protection assessment and EIA are overridden for the scope of the regulation. The so-called EU emergency regulation also contains further regulations for acceleration, which are directly applicable and therefore not in national law must be implemented: When repowering renewable systems or grid reinforcement measures, the EIA is limited to a delta check, i.e. to the additional load of the new system or line compared to the existing system or line. In the case of repowering of solar systems, the EIA obligation can be omitted under certain circumstances. Accelerated installation of solar energy systems: The duration of approval processes for the installation of solar energy systems (including rooftop PV and PV on man-made structures such as landfills) will be reduced to three months . In addition, the national approval authorities for PV systems on artificial structures do not have to check whether the project requires an EIA or whether a special EIA should be carried out. For systems below 50 kW there is also a fiction of approval. Accelerating the expansion of heat pumps: The ordinance generally limits 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. In addition, a connection right for heat pumps up to 12 kW or up to 50 kW for self-consumption is established.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.

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