This aerial view shows the Bavarian village of Schnabelwaid, southern Germany, on July 17, 2023. In Schnabelwaid, residents have said “yes” to the installation of wind turbines on the hillside next to their rural Bavarian village.
The district is “heavily indebted”, said mayor Hans-Walter Hofmann, while the wind park “will generate revenues”. On the other side of the debate, Karin Bauer said that clearing forest to make way for wind turbines “completely goes against” climate preservation principles.The area’s rich groundwater would be “at risk if 10 wind turbines are built” there, Bauer’s neighbor Rosemarie Ballwieser added.
The energy produced by the wind park could produce enough electricity for 30,000 homes, according to his company Uhl Windkraft.By setting a target to cover 1.4 percent of Germany’s land surface with wind turbines by 2027 — rising to two percent by 2032 — Olaf Scholz’s coalition government is hoping to send a signal to Germany’s regional governments to get a move on.
In Bavaria, installing wind energy capacity is made more difficult by a rule that means any new mast has to be at a distance of 10 times its own height from the nearest house.