NRW overturns thousand-metre rule for wind turbines

The minimum distance between wind turbines and residential areas in Germany is not uniformly regulated by the federal government but by the individual federal states, so that there are a large number of different regulations.

In about half of the Länder regulations, recourse is made to the blanket thousand-metre rule, whereby wind turbines may not be located closer than 1000 metres to a (general/ pure) residential area.

For years, this very rule has been a major bone of contention in the expansion of renewable energies and wind power in North Rhine-Westphalia. But now the thousand-metre rule has been passed by a large majority of the NRW state parliament. abolishedto drive forward the expansion of further wind power and achieve the climate targets.

According to estimates by the "Landesverband Erneuerbare Energien", wind turbines will nevertheless continue to be located several hundred metres away from residential areas in North Rhine-Westphalia, among other things due to regulations on noise protection.

Nevertheless, the elimination of the thousand-metre rule, taking into account noise protection regulations, is intended to reduce the area that is likely to be built on with wind turbines in the future by 42 percent be increased if the result of the calculation of the "Landesamt für Natur, Umwelt und Verbraucherschutz NRW" (LANUV) is taken into account.

M&P ENERGY is pleased about this positive news about the increase of wind energy in North Rhine-Westphalia and about the possibility to support the planning of these new wind power plants with its expertise..