"In line with forest management": Another push for more wind turbines

The discussion about more use of wind power in the Rheingau-Taunus district continues.

The SPD parliamentary group in the city of Eltville submitted a motion to the city council at the end of May, which is intended to ensure the "harmony of forestry and future wind power".

In the municipalities of Rheingau and Untertaunus, the Social Democrats should examine whether new initiatives to build wind turbines can be started.

The Rheingau-Taunus sub-district approved an application by the Eltville SPD at the party conference, as sub-district chairman Marius Weiß reports.

The Eltviller comrades are demanding that the city work with the Hessen Forestry Office to ensure that bare areas in the Eltville city forest are only reforested outside of the wind priority areas.

It is logical that "we are primarily trying to do the urgently needed reforestation where wind turbines cannot be built soon at the request of the population," said the deputy parliamentary group leader Ralf Bachmann.

According to the parliamentary group leader Matthias Hannes, the possible locations are known due to reports that have been available for years, which is why the local operating areas could be left out of the expensive stocking.

"Instead, the seedlings should be spread out in the many other places with bare areas in the forest."

Two percent of the area of ​​the Rheingau for wind turbines

From the SPD's point of view, the war in Ukraine has prompted a new debate about energy policy security and the demand for energy independence and thus also wind power in the district and in Eltville.

In the letter, the comrades expressed their conviction that the fears about water protection, bird life and the protection of the landscape were "clearly invalidated".

The citizens' initiative Pro Kulturlandschaft sees things differently.

At the beginning of April, she had reacted negatively to the Eltville SPD proposal to put the topic of wind turbines back on the agenda.

Setting aside two percent of the Rheingau area for wind turbines means 100 percent destruction of the landscape, according to the initiative.

At the SPD sub-district party conference at the weekend, the delegates unanimously accepted the motion of the Eltville SPD.

So far, the Rheingau has been free of wind turbines.

There are only wind farms in the Untertaunus municipalities of Heidenrod and Hohenstein.

According to Weiß, the original application, which dealt with municipalities in the Rheingau, was supplemented with the municipalities in the Lower Taunus, which do not yet have wind farms.

Such as Taunusstein, which rejects rotors on the Taunus ridge.

In Eltville in 2015, the citizens voted against the construction of rotors with 54 percent of the votes.

Although the required quorum of 25 percent was missed in the referendum, Eltville's politicians accepted the opinion against the will of the SPD.

According to Weiß, however, the mood among the population has now changed.

Although this had already been established before the outbreak of the Ukraine war, he was convinced that this had intensified the change of opinion.