Bavarian authorities at odds about wind energy expansion - report

Aug 30, 2013 - The state government of Bavaria has drawn massive criticism from municipal authorities in connection with a new legislation about wind turbines, daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported today.

Bavaria, together with the state of Saxony, wants to extend the required distance of wind turbines from residential areas to 2,000 metres (6,562 ft).

Municipal authorities as well as environment organisation Bund Naturschutz have strongly criticised the measure.

A regional association for the city of Dachau said the state government is sabotaging the wind power expansion in Bavaria with this new legislation. The association has already called on Dachau city representatives to block the new requirement for their area.

Roderich Zauscher, regional head at Bund Naturschutz, criticised both Bavaria's minister president Horst Seehofer and Saxony's minister president Stanislaw Tillich. He said Seehofer is using the new rule to win more votes for the upcoming general election and Tillich wants to continue to sell the brown coal produce in his state. Zauscher said the move is "transparent populism".

He added he did not believe that the new legislation will gain much support in the state council. If the minimum distance for wind turbines is 2,000 metres, there will be no way to install 1,500 turbines in Bavaria, as Seehofer had targeted, Zauscher said.

Robert Haimerl, head of the city utility company of Dachau, said the new initiative is symptomatic of the inconsistent energy policy in Bavaria.

Bavaria MP of the CSU party Bernhard Seidenath commented that the set state policy will be followed without any changes. He said the new initiative is merely meant to enable federal states to set individual requirements for the distance of wind turbines from residential areas.

Bavaria is aiming to produce 10% of its electricity from wind power by 2021.

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