New wind power laws in Germany face opposition - report

The German government is preparing new wind power legislation in a bid to accelerate the deployment of green capacity but the new laws are facing opposition from the ministry of justice, news magazine Der Spiegel said on Thursday without naming sources.

The ministry of justice is said to have vetoed the new wind power laws on Wednesday which usually means that the state secretary of the ministry initiating the legislation will have to provide more clarity on certain issues before a draft law is passed to the Bundestag.

The justice ministry, led by Marco Buschmann from the Free Democrats, has criticised the ministry of environment and the ministry of the economy for the tight timeframe of the legislative process which does not provide enough time for expressing their opinion on the issue.

Industry associations reportedly had less than 24 hours to give their opinion on the draft bills.

The reason for the hurry is a dispute between the ministry of environment and the ministry of the economy, both headed by ministers from the Green Party, which caused a delay in the draft of the amendment to the Federal Nature Conservation Act, Der Spiegel said.

With the new wind energy laws, the German government is seeking to designate 2% of the country's territory for the installation of turbines in order to speed up the expansion of wind power. In 2020, only 0.5% of the territory was available for wind energy.

It is unclear whether the legislation will be passed to the parliament before the summer break, as planned, the report adds.

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