© Reuters. German wind power expansion stalls, transport permits unaffordable
News from the Financial Associated Press, September 8 (edited by Niu Zhanlin)Wind power expansion in Germany is facing an unexpected hurdle: builders need to obtain permits to transport heavy turbines on the country’s roads, and they often have to wait months for permits, which has brought the country’s wind power expansion to a standstill. forward.
With a backlog of more than 15,000 approval applications, companies say their projects are being severely delayed and long-term storage costs for tower components, generators and blades run into the millions.
“Assuming nothing changes, an additional €115 million could be spent by the end of the year,” said wind turbine maker Enercon spokesman Felix Rehwald.
Transporting heavy loads on bridges and highways requires a permit. Sometimes transporting some goods requires the demolition of buildings and road signs along the way, some goods require police escorts, and some goods can only be transported at night.
“Transportation permits are currently one of the most pressing challenges facing us and our competitors,” Rehwald added. Delays in permits are costing the company thousands of euros a day, adding that as wind power construction begins next year With moderate acceleration, the bottleneck will only get worse.
Germany aims to generate 80% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, including 115 GW from onshore wind, but a lack of transport permits jeopardizes that goal.
high cost
Nordex, the world’s leading wind turbine manufacturer, said the cost of licenses had risen tenfold. A spokesperson for the company also spoke of “massive delays and enormous costs”.
Application costs per license have jumped from 100 euros in 2021 to more than 1,000 euros, Nordex said. But the scope of the license is so restrictive that businesses often make multiple applications to address different circumstances.
An average of 150 permits are required to transport wind turbines, 100 to 120 to transport cranes and 60 to transport turbine components, according to a study published last year by engineering association VDMA.
The study said that as there is no uniform law on the transport of heavy loads, each federal state requires different documents. A surge in wind power construction has led to a surge in applications, the poor state of some bridges and roads, and varying interpretations of the regulations by authorities have all hampered approvals.
The German government on Wednesday announced a series of plans aimed at stimulating the economy, including reducing bureaucracy, speeding up the approval process for new buildings and digitizing citizens’ access to key government services.
The new policy sets out a range of goals, including faster online negotiation processes for wind farms, transport and data networks, according to a government document.
Meanwhile, in Germany it takes up to three months to process each permit, while in the Netherlands it takes an average of just two to three weeks and in Denmark around 10 days.
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2023-09-07 17:24:00
