Plans to limit wind power expansion in NRW met with criticism

Energy experts in Germany’s most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) have slammed plans by the state government to tighten regulations for the construction of new onshore wind power installations, Dow Jones Newswires reports. The plan to set minimum distances from residential premises to 1.5 kilometres was “neither legal nor practical”, the associations of cities and municipalities in NRW said in a joint statement. The policy pursued by NRW’s government coalition of the conservative CDU and the pro-business FDP was “irreconcilable with federal law”, a foundation specialising in renewable energy law said. NRW’s association for renewable energies said the measure was likely to lead to a standstill in wind power expansion in the state.

See the CLEW factsheet Fighting windmills for more information.