Germany's onshore wind power construction permits reach new quarterly record in early 2024
Clean Energy Wire
Permits for new onshore wind power installations in Germany reached a record high of 2.6 gigawatt (GW) in the first three months of 2024, said industry group Fachagentur Windenergie an Land (FA Wind). The 460 turbines meant an increase of 40 percent compared to the same period last year. The number of wind turbines that went into operation by the end of March also increased significantly compared to the previous year, said FA Wind. With 139 new turbines (717 megawatt), the first quarter saw a 20 percent increase over the previous year. That brings the total number of operating onshore wind turbines in Germany to 28,700 (61.5 GW).
Wind additions are firmly back on a growth track after years of lagging expansion, industry lobby group BWE said earlier this year. Construction permits and licensing were seen as some of the biggest stumbling blocks for the renewable power source's expansion in recent years, but the government coalition under chancellor Olaf Scholz has made a faster approval of new projects a key instrument for its climate and energy policies. Wind power overtook coal as the country’s most important electricity source in 2023, underlining the technology’s potential for becoming the energy system’s backbone, BWE president Bärbel Heidebroek said.
