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The EU countries will need to significantly shorten and simplify their wind farm construction procedures if they are to meet their greenhouse gas reduction targets.
In fact, only Germany has sufficiently adapted the permit procedures to the latest EU climate targets. This is evident from the annual report of the trade association WindEurope, which was published this week.
The European Union wants to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by half in seven years compared to 1990. In addition, wind and solar energy must account for at least 45 percent of total energy consumption. Wind energy plays a key role, but according to WindEurope its rollout is lagging behind. The same applies to new investments in European wind energy.
The Netherlands wants to double its wind energy capacity in the coming years. Three new geieden have therefore been designated in the North Sea where hundreds of new wind turbines can be installed. In addition, the previous designation of two other gedeieden has been confirmed. This paves the way for wind farms with a total capacity of 10.7 gigawatts, enough to supply millions of households with green energy.
The wind farms will be built over the next eight years. Tendering procedures will be introduced in which companies can indicate the conditions under which they wish to do so. Different procedures apply to those parks at sea than to the regional RES transitions in which provincial and municipal authorities are also involved.
Europe now has 255 gigawatt wind energy capacity. About 20 gigawatts are now added annually. But to achieve the targets, an average of 31 gigawatts per year must be added. Germany in particular leads the way; the permit procedure there has been halved to two years. Other governments should follow that example, because permits are still the bottleneck for the European wind energy sector, according to the wind energy umbrella.
