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The Bavarian town of Niederaichbach has long opposed a high-voltage power line, which is essential for transporting Germany’s renewable energy. It took a war and nationwide power outage warnings for local residents’ resistance to subside.
SuedOstLink is one of two major electricity highways that will bring offshore wind energy from Germany’s north coast to the core industrial areas. Niederaichbach – only a few kilometers away from the largest German car factory, BMW AG – marks the southernmost point of the starting grid.
Residents only recently allowed the plan to go ahead after years of legal action to prevent it. In 2020, the city sued the construction project — which includes a giant converter — over hopes of using the space for preservation and concerns over appearance.
The city’s recent change of course is good news for Germany’s sluggish build-out of renewable energy, but it’s also a reminder of simmering resistance across Europe. As the energy crisis weighs on the region, citizens are being forced to weigh the political and environmental risks of fossil fuel dependency against the potentially clogging aesthetics of power cables and modern windmills.
There is a lot at stake for Germany: the economy is threatened with de-industrialization if it cannot guarantee an affordable power supply. It is also under pressure – as the most polluting member of the bloc – to contribute to Europe’s drive to go green and help stem the climate crisis.
“We need transmission lines to increase our energy independence and make the energy transition a success,” Niederaichbach Mayor Josef Klaus said in an interview with Bloomberg. In a sign of how quickly sentiment has changed, the mayor was quoted as saying as recently as February that he was “disappointed” by a court ruling in favor of the power line.
The story goes on
The energy crisis sparked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was instrumental in reducing his and the city’s opposition to SuedOstLink, and appears to be melting opposition to projects elsewhere as well. Germans have faced higher inflation than at any time since the end of World War II, and citizens fear the pressure on the manufacturing-heavy economy could result in production halts and job losses.
“People see that renewable energies are the key to more independence,” says energy sociologist Katja Witte from the Wuppertal Institute, adding: “Regionally generated and used energy can give a feeling of control and trust.”
Polls indicate that public opinion is increasingly supporting green energy, and lawmakers have also commented on the local shift.
The Greens politician Lisa Badum said that there has only been one onshore turbine in her Bavarian home district since 1999, and four to five wind areas are now being planned. Many who used to be against wind power — particularly conservative forces — are now voting in favor, she says.
Similarly, Social Democrat Timon Gremmels said that anti-wind activists have been very active in the past in the forest near his home, the Reinhardswald in central Germany. But resistance has “definitely decreased” since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, he said in an interview.
Read more: Green fix to replace Russian gas hampered by Europe’s bureaucracy
This leeway has given the federal government leeway to relax regulations in favor of renewable energy operators. Onshore wind farms are allowed to operate at higher power at night, even if this causes a little more noise. Biomass plants that burn plants and other organic materials have also been given the green light for upscale production, although they tend to have unpleasant odors.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition has raised the nationwide target for renewable energy from 65% to 80% by 2030 and passed 25 energy-related laws or regulations in the first three quarters of this year – hardly any government before.
New legislation, coming into effect in January, states that clean energy is “in the overriding public interest and for public safety”. Still, the country is set to miss its climate targets this decade, according to experts advising the government, and environmental performance rankings show Germany falling behind, largely due to slow progress on clean energy.
Despite signs of improvement, local resistance remains a challenge to Germany’s green transition. The town of Oederan in the country’s former communist Eastern Bloc, where the far-right and climate-skeptical Alternative for Germany is very strong, is torpedoing plans to build nine wind turbines with an annual output of 135 kilowatt hours. Residents, politicians and local government argue that the wind farm would obscure a scenic view of a 13th-century church.
Although communities can benefit significantly from local onshore parks – the law even requires operators to share profits with local residents – locals often fear they could lose out, for example if new developments cause property values to fall. You have many opportunities to oppose new projects.
Lengthy planning processes for renewable energy systems are also a major issue for companies in the industry. The federal states need between 14 and 58 months to issue permits, which means that Germany falls well short of the EU’s one-year recommendation. According to a survey by Germany’s largest industry association, BDI, certain procedures even take three times as long as permitted.
In the country’s most recent election campaign, Scholz announced that he would reduce bureaucracy for renewables. For example, the approval of wind turbines should not take six years, but six months, he once said.
“All in all, bureaucratic processes related to wind, solar and grid expansion can take up to 15 years,” says Simon Müller, Germany Managing Director of the energy think tank Agora Energiewende. While the federal government is aware of the problem, it has limited ability to change it because such decisions are largely in the hands of state agencies.
If rural districts and municipalities also want to have a say, it quickly leads to so much paperwork “that three plants can fill 70 folders,” said Katja Wunschel, CEO of Wind Onshore at RWE AG, recently at a panel discussion. RWE, a renewable energy giant, has repeatedly warned that these delays are making Germany less attractive for investment.
In the Bavarian town of Niederaichbach, the planners are only a little more hopeful. Though the hurdle of local resistance has been removed, the Energieautobahn is years away from relieving Germany’s energy woes, and concrete construction plans have not yet begun. The federal regulator expects the entire power line to be operational by 2030.
–With support from Chris Reiter.
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