German wind industry says military restrictions will throttle sector's expansion

But the draft gives new power to German defence authorities to reject wind turbine construction in areas considered close enough to disrupt stationary air defence radars, the association, BWE, said. "A good third of the entire federal territory would no longer be available for wind energy, including particularly windy areas on the coasts," BWE President Bärbel Heidebroek said in a statement, adding that such defence systems were already protected by building code regulations.

Germany's wind power association on Wednesday said a draft bill to speed up the permitting process for infrastructure projects would throttle expansion of the wind sector as it gives the military a say over territory for wind turbine construction.

Germany aims to obtain 80% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. It is targeting 115 gigawatts from onshore wind, with the goal of making 2% of the country available for wind power by 2030 from 0.5% available today. But the draft gives new power to German defence authorities to reject wind turbine construction in areas considered close enough to disrupt stationary air defence radars, the association, BWE, said.

"A good third of the entire federal territory would no longer be available for wind energy, including particularly windy areas on the coasts," BWE President Bärbel Heidebroek said in a statement, adding that such defence systems were already protected by building code regulations. The new change, drafted by the transport ministry, would give a military permitting authority the power to examine construction in areas within its test radius for stationary air defence radars, based on an assumption that the turbine could lead to a malfunction rather than proof, it said.

This would affect several hundred wind turbines each year and would create a "new bureaucratic monster", BWE said, adding that the military, which usually demands a clear test radius of 50 kilometres (31 miles), has 18 stationary radars. The transport ministry said the changes to the draft bill were requested by the defence ministry due to concern that disruption of military facilities that control flight operations could lead to a risk of collisions or crashes.

It said the planned change did not mean an automatic exclusion or construction ban, rather an examination on a case-by-case basis, adding that it still expected a high percentage of military approved permits, citing a current 90% rate. "The change is also an expression of the increased importance of national and alliance defence in our country," a spokesperson for the ministry told Reuters.

The defence ministry was not immediately available for comment.