From BZ/dpa
The expansion of wind power in Brandenburg is progressing comparatively slowly. According to preliminary figures, 17 new plants went into operation in the first three months of the year – four fewer than in the same quarter of the previous year.
This was the result of a preliminary evaluation by the Onshore Wind Energy Agency, which was available to the German Press Agency. 16 plants were newly approved, three more than in the same quarter of the previous year.
The approval of a wind turbine by the responsible authorities is considered a crucial hurdle. Then there is an invitation to tender, then the construction of a wind turbine. According to the German Wind Energy Association, it takes an average of 20 months after approval, in the best-case scenario, for a new wind turbine to be connected to the grid.
Brandenburg is one of the most important federal states for the expansion of wind power in Germany. There are currently around 4,000 wind turbines with an output of 8,000 megawatts – in a country comparison, that means second place. In the current year, only Schleswig-Holstein (23.7 percent) and Lower Saxony (20.7 percent) put more capacity into operation; Brandenburg’s share was 16.3 percent.
In Berlin, no wind turbines were commissioned or approved in the first quarter of 2023 or a year earlier. There are currently six plants in the capital.
The President of the German Wind Energy Association (BWE), Hermann Albers, assessed the figures for Brandenburg critically. “The fact that Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg and Saxony are lagging behind despite good conditions is worrying,” said Albers. With a view to the whole of Germany, the industry association criticized above all a “de facto failure” of wind power expansion in the south.
In the first quarter, 117 new wind turbines with an output of 546.4 megawatts were installed nationwide. In the same period, 295 systems with an output of 1645 megawatts were approved – in terms of output, an increase of 48 percent compared to the first quarter of 2022.