Statement on the draft law to accelerate offshore wind power
Statement on the draft bill/law implementing the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) in the area of offshore wind energy and power grids.
“It is very good that the federal government is continuing to work on accelerating the process for expanding offshore wind energy. The delays announced in recent weeks illustrate how important this issue is. But we must not throw the baby out with the bathwater. This applies in particular to environmental impact assessments. We therefore recommend receiving the environmental impact study and the environmental impact assessment (EIA) as part of the approval process for areas that have not been centrally pre-investigated. In this case, this creates legal and investment security,” says BWO managing director Stefan Thimm.
In addition, the legislature should also use the legislative process that is now beginning to increase investment security for investors and wind farm operators in the Energy Industry Act. At the end of January, the transmission system operators announced delays in the grid connection of four offshore wind farm projects. The cause is bottlenecks in the value chain.
“In addition, the current procedure offers the opportunity to support the expansion of offshore wind energy in terms of industrial policy,” says Thimm. To this end, parts of the income from the tenders should be reinvested - including in the expansion of seaports and in low-interest loans for production capacities.
Hintergrund:
The Federal Ministry of Economics has asked the associations to comment on the draft bill for implementing the planning and approval provisions of the Renewable Energy Directive 2018/2001 (RED III). This will result in changes to the WindSeeG, the Energy Industry Act and the “Transmission Network Expansion Acceleration Act”.