Quietly and almost secretly, the state government in Bavaria published a report from the Ministry of Economics on the Bavarian 10H special rule, which defines the distance between wind turbines and settlements. The late realization: the special route has largely brought the expansion of wind power in Bavaria to a standstill.
Bavaria, the wind power brakes? With its controversial 10H distance rule when building new wind turbines, the Free State has slowed down the energy transition in its own state, this is the criticism again and again. An evaluation report by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs now shows that the Bavarian special path has actually almost brought the expansion of wind power to a standstill.
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The 10H rule was passed in 2014. At the same time, the law was to be checked for its functionality, according to the Bavarian government’s announcement at the time. The timeframe set for this is five years. Eight years later, the evaluation has now been completed and the report is available: online and without much fanfare.
The content of the report, on the other hand, proves what experts saw coming early on: “The figures on the expansion of wind energy make it clear that this has stalled across Germany. In Bavaria, however, an earlier and stronger slump was recorded. This situation continued beyond the reporting period,” it said.
A look at the graphic, created with data from the German Wind Energy Institute (DEWI) and Deutsche WindGuard GmbH, makes the slump clear. While a comparatively small decline in the construction of new wind turbines can already be seen in 2014, this collapses almost completely from 2017 onwards. The report states: “In 2020, 8 additional facilities were recorded in Bavaria, 4 permits were granted and 3 permit applications were submitted. In 2021, eight wind turbines were added in Bavaria, six wind turbines were approved and, for the first time, no new application for approval was submitted.”
The reasons for this development are “the necessary activation of areas suitable for wind turbines by means of municipal land use planning in Bavaria, the nationwide obligation to tender for wind turbines from 2017 and an extension of the period between the application and commissioning, mainly due to species protection issues and increasing court proceedings”.
The core problem is hidden behind the 10H rule. This states that a wind turbine must be built ten times as far away from a settlement as it is tall. Modern wind turbines are often higher than 200 meters. This means that Bavarian wind turbines can be at least two kilometers away from a settlement. A minimum distance that can hardly be maintained anywhere in Bavaria. According to a report by the Ministry of Economic Affairs only on 1500 hectares of the country. That’s 0.02 percent. In view of this low value, this case therefore plays a negligible role.
However, if a village or community decides independently to enable wind power, it must, according to the law, integrate this into its land use planning. This should strengthen citizen participation and continue to enable the expansion of wind power. However, the reality in Bavaria is different, according to the figures and the report from the ministry.
You can read more about wind power in Bavaria here:
According to this, after the special regulation was issued in 2014, 17 Bavarian development plans for wind turbines were drawn up. However, this has rarely happened in the recent past. But what the report also shows in detail: The development plans were already started before the 10H rule was passed. After that there was a lull. The report says: “Since the preparation decisions were made in most cases before the decision on the 10-H rule, it can be assumed that these development plans were not drawn up under the impression of the 10-H rule, but rather before 2014 for general purposes control of the outdoor area have been initiated.”
Not only does the report take the wind out of the sails of the 10-H-Sonderweg, but the intervention of the federal government is now forcing Bavaria to make a readjustment. From June 2023, the wind on land law passed by the federal traffic light government will apply in Germany. It prescribes mandatory expansion targets for the federal states – if these are not met, the federal government cancels the minimum distances. In addition, the countries must adjust their distance rules again by next summer so that they do not stand in the way of the goals. According to the federal law, Bavaria must provide a total of 1.8 percent of its land area for wind power by 2032.
Meanwhile, a draft by the Free State government for the new Bavarian building code for the construction of wind turbines in the priority areas provides for an additional hurdle with a minimum distance of 1000 meters to the nearest residential development. The bill swaps the 10H rule for the 1000 meter distance rule. The places affected include motorways, forests, commercial areas or areas where wind turbines are located.
CSU Building Minister Christian Bernreiter explains why the draft provides for a minimum distance for a few months in the wind priority areas of all places: “With our draft law, we are sticking to the existing distance rule in principle, but are developing it further so that more suitable areas for the Wind power is available.” The leeway that the traffic light law gives the federal states is used as much as possible in the interests of all citizens and the cases for which the federal law no longer provides for minimum distances from June next year are limited the possible minimum, according to Bernreiter.
