Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) has said goodbye to the ambitious expansion plans for wind energy.

"Realistically, that's not possible at all.

Every year that I don't build, I have to build more next year," said Kretschmann on Tuesday in Stuttgart.

Rudiger Soldt

Political correspondent in Baden-Württemberg.

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A year ago, when the coalition was formed, the green-black government decided to have 1,000 new wind turbines built by the end of the legislative period.

The coalition agreement states that in anticipation of the climate protection law, they want a "tendering offensive for the marketing of state forest and state areas for wind power use." In this way, the "prerequisites for the construction of up to 1000 new wind turbines" can be created for investors.

Kretschmann considers 100 wind turbines per year to be realistic

This goal was considered very ambitious right from the start, but the wording was then interpreted in the government to the extent that creating the conditions does not necessarily mean that the wind turbines have to be built by 2026.

In 2021, the state government had just 28 plants built, and only three new plants were approved in the first four months of this year.

Kretschmann had repeatedly complained in recent weeks about the slow pace of wind energy expansion.

The CDU parliamentary group leader Manuel Hagel had even called for the time from planning to the start of construction to be reduced to one year. It currently takes an average of seven years for a new wind turbine to be built.

Kretschmann now said that the goal must be to build around a hundred wind turbines a year.

That is "reasonably realistic."

A few months ago, the green-black state government set up a working group to remove procedural obstacles to the expansion of wind power: For example, the objection procedure for the approval of wind power plants will soon be abolished.

For this, the law on the implementation of the administrative court regulations must be changed, because an objection procedure also has a suspensive effect on lawsuits.

Lawsuits are being filed against many wind energy projects anyway, with the abolition of the objection procedure the planning time can be shortened by up to twelve months, according to the government factions of the CDU and the Greens.

Working groups have also been set up in the four regional councils of Baden-Württemberg to advise the district offices on the planning of new systems.

The Greens also hope that wind turbines will also be built in green areas in the future.

Forestry and Agriculture Minister Peter Hauk (CDU) has designated locations for 130 systems on state forest areas.

Environment Minister Thekla Walker (Greens) expects that after a change in the law by the federal government, wind turbines can also be erected in landscape protection areas in the future.

Kretschmann wants to halve the planning time from the current seven years to three and a half years.

FDP: CDU has joined Utopia

The Ministry of the Environment says that the legal changes that have now been decided could take effect in three years at the earliest.

Unlike the traffic light government in the federal government, the green-black coalition in the southwest state wants to develop two percent of the country's area with wind and photovoltaic systems;

the federal government applies the two-percent rule only to wind turbines.

The opposition FDP criticized the Prime Minister's statement.

If only a hundred plants could be built per year, then by 2026 that would be a maximum of 500 plants, half of the originally planned plants.

The climate protection policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Daniel Karrais, said: "As early as February 2021 I noticed that the Greens were on the wrong track with their goal of 1000 wind turbines.

The CDU then joined this utopia in the coalition agreement.”