One year until the wind farm - This is how the EU wants to accelerate the expansion of renewables

From the point of view of the European Commission, the expansion of electricity generation from renewable energies is the most important measure to make the EU independent of Russian oil and gas in the long term. “Renewables are cheap, we produce them ourselves and they make us independent. Renewables are our energy insurance for the future," Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

When the politician presented her so-called RePowerEU strategy in May, which is intended to make Europe independent of Russian gas, the accelerated expansion of electricity production from renewables also played a central role. "The most important thing is (...) to accelerate the energy transition, i.e. to invest massively in renewable energies," the politician said at the time. "Among other things, we propose speeding up the approval process for renewable energy."

In Europe, it can currently take six to nine years for an approval process for a wind farm to be completed. That is untenable. Shortly thereafter, the responsible energy commissioner, Kadri Simson, presented her draft for a revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), which is intended to accelerate the expansion of renewables.

Simson's draft law is currently being discussed in the European Parliament, and there the responsible rapporteur, the CDU MP Markus Pieper, criticizes the proposal considerably. "The Commission's proposal is far from sufficient to really speed up the approval process," said the parliamentary director of the CDU/CSU group WELT.

Pieper has consulted with representatives of other parliamentary groups in the past few weeks and has now drafted amendments that are available to WELT. They form the basis for further deliberations in the responsible industry committee. The environmental committee also has a say in the project.

The central innovation in the Commission's proposal: In the future, it should be possible for the member states to designate so-called go-to areas in which it should be particularly easy to set up wind turbines, solar parks or other systems for the production of electricity from renewable sources. The approval processes for new plants in these areas should last a maximum of one year.

However, Pieper criticizes the fact that the Commission's proposal does not remove a significant stumbling block in the approval of new plants, even in these new areas. According to the politician, species protection is still given too much space there.

In his report, Pieper also calls for a restriction of species protection for the planned areas with turbo approval: The member states should continue to comply with the applicable EU environmental laws when approving wind turbines, solar parks, transmission lines and other systems for the production, transmission and storage of renewables consider. But you should interpret them more generously than before.

Member States should act according to the principle "that species protection relates to an entire population and not to individual specimens," says Pieper's amendment. "When it comes to species protection, I again demand that approval procedures must be possible if the preservation of the population is assured. A single dormouse, whose species is not endangered, must not prevent a wind or solar park," Pieper told WELT. "It should only be ensured that the species is not endangered in Europe."

Germany was widely praised for the energy transition at the meeting in Scandinavia. Above all, the investment in hydrogen is particularly popular there, says WELT editor-in-chief Robin Alexander. However, the failed German energy policy of the last 20 years was not addressed.

Source: WORLD

According to the parliamentarian, corresponding regulations would also have an impact on Germany. If there were the possibility at EU level to designate such areas with quick approval, in which the rules for species protection were also lowered, Germany could use these exceptions for the so-called go-to areas. So far, when species protection concerns delay approval procedures in Germany, too, reference has often been made to the relevant EU nature conservation directive.

In addition to restricting species protection, Pieper also calls for a new name for the commission's plans so as not to create additional resistance to renewables. The term "go-to areas" suggests that all other areas are not suitable for approval of renewables.

This designation could "due to this naming alone lead to other areas becoming 'no-go areas' in the planning process." He therefore advocates a new name: "Areas for accelerating renewables".

The proposed changes are first discussed in the Industry Committee; at the latest at the November session, the entire parliament could vote on its position on the plans. Parliament and Member States then have to agree on the final legal text. There is likely to be sympathy for Pieper's proposals in Central and Eastern European countries and in southern Europe. On the other hand, Scandinavian EU members, the Benelux countries and presumably also the traffic light federal government are likely to resist a relaxation of species protection.

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