Draft law to speed up onshore wind approvals in Germany

The German government has approved the draft of the Investment Acceleration Act, which is designed to speed up the planning and approval procedures for various infrastructure projects, including onshore wind.

An important step in this direction is the shortening of administrative court proceedings, Federal Minister of Economics Altmaier said on Wednesday.

Germany’s added a bit more than a gigawatt of onshore wind capacity in 2019, down by 55% year-on-year and by 80% from 2017, reaching the lowest level of annual installations in almost 20 years. Early in 2020, the German Wind Power Association (BWE) urged the government to act quickly and remove the obstacles to the expansion of onshore wind. Projects in the country are being hampered by red tape, protests and prolonged lawsuits.

The draft law will now go to parliament, which will have the final say.

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