Wind energy development and species protection

In view of the climate crisis, the German government has set itself the goal of increasing the share of renewable energies in gross electricity consumption to at least 80 per cent by 2030 and to 100 per cent by 2035. 

This includes the rapid expansion of onshore wind energy. Two per cent of the country's area is to be made available for the construction of wind farms. At the same time, approval procedures are to be accelerated. 

Against this background, the Fourth Act amending the Federal Nature Conservation Act (BNatSchG) of 20 July 2022 has standardised species protection assessments across Germany.

This project aims to simplify the application of the amended BNatSchG in the planning and approval process. In several steps, the new provisions of the Federal Nature Conservation Act will be comprehensively interpreted and concretised. 

The project consists of two parts:

• Impact assessment under species protection law during the permitting process of wind turbines (FKZ 3522860500) and
• approval of wind turbines within the framework of the species protection law exception and its link with the national species assistance programmes re. favourable conservation status (FKZ 3523861600). 

Various topics are to be addressed within these sub-projects, including

• the requirements of special species protection with regard to dealing with the prohibition to kill and injure breeding bird species at risk of collision near their breeding sites with a particular focus on distance recommendations,
• listing of scientifically recognised protective measures and regulations regarding reasonableness,
• specification of the requirements for species protection exemptions for the operation of wind turbines and
• species protection-related simplifications for repowering,
• introduction of national species recovery programmes and regulations regarding payments for these programmes.

As a result of new EU directives such as the EU Emergency Regulation (Regulation EU 2022/2577) and EU Amending Directive EU 2023/2413 on the amendment of the Renewable Energy Directive EU 2018/2001 and its possible transposition into German law, a series of technical brief papers have been prepared that can be found in German at https://www.natur-und-erneuerbare.de/en/project-database/wind-energy-ramp-up-and-species-protection-laws/ under “Erste Zwischenergebnisse”. 

Please refer to the project page of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation for further information: https://www.natur-und-erneuerbare.de/en/project-database/wind-energy-ramp-up-and-species-protection-laws/