German wind power association warns against loss of land due to ... - Clean Energy Wire
German wind power association warns against loss of land due to planned military restrictions | Clean Energy Wire
German wind power association warns against loss of land due to planned military restrictions
Tagesspiegel Background
New military exclusion zones could lead to the loss of up to a third of federal land for wind power generation in Germany, Tagesspiegel Background reported. The German Wind Energy Association ( BWE) has warned that new restricted areas around German Air Force radar systems would reduce the federal government's target of assigning 2 percent of the country's land area for onshore wind power to “absurdity.” The new exclusion zones are part of a transport ministry draft law that expands the Air Traffic Act. The amendment bans structures such as wind turbines if they disrupt air traffic control radar systems for civil air traffic. As a result of the war in Ukraine, however, it would also extend to 18 radar systems overseen by the German Air Force’s operational command and control service throughout the country, according to the energy policy newsletter.
The new act foresees a 50-kilometre test radius around the radar systems, which would dramatically reduce space for wind power. The BWE has calculated that around a third of the federal territory currently available for onshore wind power generation could suddenly become restricted areas. The plans would “result in a huge consumption of land,” BWE president Bärbel Heidebroek warns. While wind power projects could theoretically still be approved by the military in some restricted areas if they are deemed to be safe, the uncertainty would lead to developers avoiding exclusion zones, the
Germany aims to meet 80 percent of its electricity demand from renewable sources by 2030. To get there, 57 gigawatts (GW) of new onshore wind turbines, 22 GW offshore turbines and 150 GW of photovoltaic capacity must be built.
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Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.