
Support for renewable energy has gone mainstream, but wind turbines are often regarded as unwelcome neighbors. |
As youth activists march against climate change and legislators look to phase out fossil power generation, onshore wind developers in Germany are facing headwinds blowing the other way. Anti-wind activists and concerned local residents have laid roadblocks on the industry's path to expansion.
"The opposition is quite strong," said Daniel Breuer, an energy lawyer with Osborne Clarke in Cologne. "Almost every new project is being contested."
As a result, construction numbers in the sector are tumbling, and German subsidy auctions continue to be undersubscribed. The country has added 86 new wind turbines so far this year, compared with 1,405 in 2017, according to wind consultancy and research group Deutsche WindGuard. Permitting and public acceptance are the main reasons for slower market activity in Germany, said industry association WindEurope.
Anti-onshore wind groups across Germany have voiced concerns over noise, shadows, aesthetics, species protection and economic disadvantages for years, and some in the industry describe a spiral of negative sentiment which feeds back into politics in Germany.
German developers ABO Wind AG and BayWa r.e. renewable energy GmbH are among those pushing back against concerns over noise and flickering shadows, arguing that intense scrutiny during the permitting process and technological advancements have drastically reduced the impact of turbines on nearby residents' quality of life.
"Turbines are becoming much quieter in relation to how much power they generate," said Alexander Koffka, head of public relations and investor relations at ABO Wind.
But "there is a lack of information," added Marie-Luise Pörtner, managing director at BayWa r.e. Wind GmbH in Germany. Developers need to obtain detailed assessments on noise and shadow impacts before projects are carried out — a costly and time-intensive step, she said.
"When people are against something, that creates a lot of energy," said Koffka, adding that a majority of people do not oppose onshore wind projects, but "those who think it is OK do not get off their butt." Therefore, politics should be setting clearer targets for onshore wind, he said.
"It is the not-in-my-backyard problem," Breuer said. While the turbines may not be beautiful, he said, "Our sustainable energy needs to come from somewhere."
No silver bullet
Some promising solutions are emerging in neighboring Netherlands. Onshore wind in the country, one-tenth of the size of Germany, is running out of space to grow further, and new projects are often closer to residential areas.
To foster acceptance, some developers in the Netherlands have adopted financial stakeholder models for the local community, such as crowdfunding or cooperative shareholding. The idea is that returns from the project, and often the green power itself, flow back into communities. "Energy is made tangible on a local level," Breuer said.
Indeed, providing clear financial incentives and participation for communities near wind farms has evolved from a voluntary add-on to standard practice in the Netherlands, said Joost Samsom, partner at boutique renewables advisory firm Voltiq.
"We've reached the point where onshore wind development is seriously decelerating because of local opposition," Samsom said. "In permit applications, local participation now needs to be part of the scheme, either by crowdfunding or through shareholding."
An example is the 34-turbine Krammer wind park in the southwest of the country, which was financed by cooperatives Zeeuwind and Deltawind, representing more than 4,000 local citizens. Currently under construction, it calls itself "the largest citizens' initiative in the Netherlands," and says it will produce enough power to supply 100,000 households.
For its part, BayWa is working on its first crowdfunded onshore wind project in the northeastern German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In 2016, the state passed legislation obliging developers to include local residents financially in new wind farms by offering the option to buy shares.
The crowdfunding model involves a "significant added effort" from developers, BayWa's Pörtner said. Much of this effort comes from communications, as every project needs its own website and mechanisms to update investors.
While crowdfunding can help improve local acceptance, "there is no silver bullet," according to ABO Wind's Koffka. In a bid to foster local support, the company has built a hiking path with information stations for families, winding through its wind farm in Weilrod, near Frankfurt. Boasting a reconstructed charcoal kiln and polar bear sculptures, the project aims to provide education and support tourism and leisure activities in the picturesque area which residents had feared would suffer from the turbines looming above.
"We had a lot of opposition," Koffka said. "But nothing has ever been vandalized." The project has benefited the local area and its businesses, he added.
Germany has tried to stimulate citizen-led renewables projects in the past: wind farm proposals to be owned by local residents used to have favorable access to subsidy auctions without needing to be pre-permitted. But some large developers abused the system by posing as citizen-backed initiatives and the tender rules were subsequently changed. "This damaged citizens' energy" in Germany, Osborne Clarke's Breuer said.
Politics blamed for the lull
While opposition stemming from a host of social, conservationist and economic reasons is taking some wind out of developers' sails, industry groups also blame a lack of political will and clarity for the lull. Federal minimum distance requirements to the nearest house mean many areas are not available for new projects.
Meanwhile, the devolution of decision-making to federal states and local communes often makes approval processes long-winded, bureaucratic and complex, according to Breuer.
But turbines also symbolize a deeper concern for some communities — they represent change. In some regions in Germany, the historical local connection to coal mining and the industry's continuing presence as a large-scale employer is stopping politics and local people from fully embracing renewables, and the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland party is gaining popularity, in part by advocating for coal. "It is about culture and identity," Koffka said. "For some, this can be a painful process."
For BayWa's Pörtner, political rhetoric in Germany focuses too much on job losses in fossil fuels, and not enough on redundancies in onshore wind. "Jobs are being lost in an industry of the future," she said. According to Wind for Future, a pro-wind initiative backed by utility EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, 21,700 jobs have been lost in the sector since 2016.
Pörtner argues that if policy doesn't change, the sector at large is at risk. "Those active exclusively in German onshore wind may not survive the next few years," she said.
While developers face challenges in Germany, Koffka said opposition to onshore wind proposals is even stronger in neighboring France. In Germany, resistance to onshore wind has ebbed and flowed in line with current affairs and politics, he added. In the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, the atmosphere was more supportive, while enthusiasm has waned in recent years during times of higher power prices.
But through youth climate activism, there is cause to be optimistic. "At the moment, the issue could shift again," he said.
