“500 new windmills for Schleswig-Holstein”

The expansion of wind power capacities will slow down significantly in Germany’s coastal state Schleswig-Holstein, writes Matthias Popien in Hamburger Abendblatt. The state government recently announced that 1,300 of the current 3,100 windmills in the state will be removed once they have reached the end of their service life. At the same time, space to build only 500 new windmills will be allotted, Popien writes. “Of course, there will be protests,” state Premier Torsten Albig said, although 98 percent of the state’s territory will remain windmill-free. According to Popien, Schleswig-Holstein is now “stuck between a rock and a hard place”. Protests against the ever-bigger windmills is growing but, at the same time, the state’s wind industry employs around 16,000 people and the renewables surcharge has earned the state around two billion euros, Popien argues. 

Read more about regional aspects of the Energiewende in the CLEW factsheet Local stories from Germany's energy transition.