MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - In the first five months of the year, applications were submitted for 90 wind turbines in Bavaria and approval was granted for 16 turbines. This was announced by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs at the request of the German Press Agency in Munich. The average capacity per turbine applied for is around 6.7 megawatts. In 2023, applications for approval were also submitted for 64 systems, which is "more than at any time since 2014".

"These figures are impressive proof of the turnaround in Bavaria," said Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters). The realization times for wind energy projects are relatively long. This is why the new measures taken in Bavaria to accelerate the expansion of wind energy have not yet been reflected in the expansion figures - "but they are reflected in the number of applications".

A total of 134 wind turbines with a total output of around 764 megawatts have been applied for across Bavaria, but have not yet been approved. According to the ministry, 46 approved turbines have not yet gone into operation (as of 04.07.2024).

The latest statistics from the German Wind Energy Association show just how urgently wind power projects in Bavaria need to be realized for a successful energy transition: with a real increase of four wind turbines and a total output of 21 megawatts, Bavaria once again only took one of the lowest places in a nationwide comparison in the first half of 2024. Only Saxony, Thuringia, Saarland and the three city states of Hamburg, Berlin and Bremen were behind the Free State.

The already low level of expansion in the first six months was also diminished by the simultaneous dismantling of a wind turbine with a capacity of one megawatt. However, Bavaria needs more of its own wind energy if it wants to meet its climate policy goals and the growing demand for energy. Even the number of applications now praised by Aiwanger will not be enough. After all, the state government has set itself the goal of initiating 1,000 new wind turbines by 2030.

At the end of the first half of 2024, the cumulative total of onshore wind turbines amounted to 28,611 turbines with a total output of 61.9 gigawatts, according to industry figures. However, Bavaria is also bringing up the rear here: together with Berlin, Bavaria has a particularly low power density of less than 50 kilowatts per square kilometer.

The sluggish expansion of wind power in Bavaria is the result of a regulatory policy that has made expansion much more difficult due to restrictive regulations. In 2014, the CSU introduced the so-called 10H rule, which stipulated that the distance between a wind turbine and residential buildings must be at least ten times its height.

As a result, the expansion of wind energy in Bavaria practically collapsed completely and a negative attitude towards rotors spread throughout the state. For years, Minister President Markus Soder (CSU) also spoke out against "making the landscape as barren as possible". The state government only relaxed the regulation in 2022 - under pressure from outside. Since then, studies have clearly shown that the 10H rule, which is still in force, also slows down the expansion considerably./had/DP/zb