Bavaria’s Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger has called on the federal government to introduce laws that would allow residents living near wind farms to share in their income.
German court advocates involving local residents in wind farm projects
Last Thursday, the Federal Constitutional Court voted in favor of a regulation that makes the participation of residents and municipalities in wind farm projects binding for wind farm operators and enables financial compensation payments.
The Bavarian Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger has now called on the federal government to introduce such regulations. “I expect that the federal government will soon pass a law that regulates the participation in wind power for residents in a binding manner that is as uniform as possible nationwide,” he told journalists. Aiwanger added that municipalities across the country should receive 0.4 cents per kilowatt hour instead of 0.2 cents.
Aiwanger argued that allowing communities and residents living near wind farms to share in the revenue would incentivize people to adopt the turbines. “We need the acceptance of the municipalities in the further development of regional wind turbines and the acceptance of the local residents,” he emphasized the need for more wind power to strengthen the country’s energy supply.
A nationwide wind farm program
Aiwanger stressed the importance of enforcing laws statewide and warned that individual states could introduce the regulations themselves if they didn’t. “If nothing comes from the federal government in a timely manner, we will have to take action ourselves in Bavaria,” said Aiwanger. He warned that states’ own regulations could make wind energy more profitable for investors and operators in some states and less so in others.
The Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Manuela Schwesig (SPD), also called on the government to “now, very quickly and finally introduce this obligation to involve local people nationwide”.
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