Germany grants fast-track areas, shorter approval times to renewables and electrolysers

The German government drafted a law to accelerate the expansion of onshore wind, solar farms and energy storage facilities by shortening approval times for projects and designing so-called “acceleration areas”. The latter would be selected by the government as places where renewable energy projects would be approved in a simplified and accelerated procedure under new provisions as part of the Wind Energy Area Requirements Act. The draft law is the government’s implementation of the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED III), which itself is based on the union’s goal of increasing the share of renewable energy in its gross final energy consumption to 42.5 percent by 2030.

“With the draft for the implementation of RED III that has now been approved, some sensible measures are planned to further accelerate the expansion [of renewable energy infrastructure],” Kerstin Andreae, head of energy industry association BDEW, said. “In other places, however, there is a significant risk that expansion will be made more difficult rather than accelerated.” Andreae highlighted discrepancies between the draft law and the Federal Pollution (Immission) Control Act, creating legal uncertainties.

The cabinet also decided to simplify and accelerate the approval process for electrolysers for hydrogen production. The amendment focuses on the transformation towards climate-neutral, clean and circular industrial processes. Production of hydrogen by electrolysis will only be subject to an approval procedure if the capacity is 50 tonnes a day or more thanks to the amendment – previously, the approval requirement applied to all industrial scale electrolysers. “In this way, we shorten the approval process for companies and significantly reduce the bureaucratic effort,” said parliamentary state secretary Jan-Niclas Gesenhues. “This is an important contribution to the further expansion of the hydrogen infrastructure and to the transformation of the economy.”

In June, the German government approved the removal of red tape to fast-track the rollout of renewables and hydrogen. The government also adopted its long-awaited hydrogen import strategy on 24 July.