BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The expansion of renewable energies is to be significantly accelerated with the help of simplified procedures. This was decided by the Bundestag in Berlin on Friday. The traffic light factions SPD, Greens and FDP voted in favor, the opposition factions of the Union, AfD and Left voted against. Among other things, it is about the implementation of an EU regulation, which is limited until the end of June next year.

The new regulations provide for leaner procedures for the planning and approval of wind turbines on land and at sea, for connection lines for offshore wind farms, for solar installations on open spaces and for electricity grids. For example, environmental impact assessments and assessments of the effects of wind turbines on species protection can be omitted if similar assessments have already been carried out when designating the area for wind energy. In the future, authorities must also inform the public online about planning.

The new requirements would save several thousand pages of paper per wind turbine and one to two years of time per wind farm, said SPD member of parliament Bengt Bergt. Lukas Köhler of the FDP announced, "We're getting faster, and we're getting cheaper." This also benefits Germany as a business location, said Christina-Johanne Schröder of the Green Party, as electricity from renewable energy is cheaper in the long run. This all serves climate protection and helps deal with the consequences of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine for energy supply, argued members of parliament.

The German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) praised considerably simplified approval procedures. However, the chairwoman of BDEW's executive board, Kerstin Andreae, would have liked to see even clearer specifications for authorities to avoid delays. In order to drive forward the expansion of renewable energies, a follow-up regulation is also needed after 2024. This was also demanded by Helmut Dedy, CEO of the German Association of Cities. He recalled that by 2030, at least 80 percent of Germany's electricity consumption alone is to be covered by renewables. "To achieve this, wind and solar energy must be expanded three times faster than before. That won't happen overnight, and it won't happen in the next 15 months."

Representatives of the opposition expressed harsh criticism of the procedure. After the traffic light factions SPD, Greens and FDP had agreed on the new rules at the beginning of the week, a hearing took place already on Wednesday, for which experts could hardly have prepared. Parallel to this hearing, the vote had already taken place in another committee, several MPs criticized. "The participation rights of the parliament are trampled on here," said CDU member of parliament Thomas Gebhart. Such a procedure weakens the acceptance of the law, said the Left Party MP Susanne Hennig-Wellsow, the Afd MP Roger Beckamp called the process "a single farce".

Katrin Uhlig from the Green Party commented that the EU emergency regulation for faster procedures in the expansion of renewable energies was only valid for 18 months and had already come into force at the end of December, Germany had to get behind with the implementation. For this reason, however, the decision could not be made in ten hours, countered Thomas Heilmann, a member of the CDU. He said that the rush had only come about because the traffic light factions had not been able to agree on the details for two months./hrz/DP/mis