Germany's Federal Cabinet has approved support for the CDU/CSU and SPD parliamentary groups to improve land management and simplify the approval process for onshore wind power plants.

The Federal Cabinet has adopted a draft bill for the implementation of the requirements of Directive (EU) 2023/2413 in the authorization procedures under the Federal Immission Control Act and the Water Resources Act, as well as for the amendment of the Federal Waterways Act and the Wind Energy Surface Area Requirements Act.

This draft bill makes a significant contribution to more controlled, efficient, and low-bureaucracy approval procedures for onshore wind energy installations.

According to government sources, the implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) and the introduction of regulations to accelerate approval procedures provide the necessary planning security.

The draft was submitted by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, in cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. It implements particularly urgent sections of the revised RED III relating to renewable energy approval procedures and establishes the conditions for better oversight of wind energy expansion.

In particular, the bill proposes simplified permitting procedures in already designated wind energy zones (referred to as "existing zones"). This creates a regulatory framework for onshore wind turbines that complements the EU Emergency Regulation, whose simplified approval procedures will expire on June 30, 2025.

Wind energy areas designated before May 21, 2024, and that meet specific requirements are already recognized as acceleration areas. Until now, simplified approval procedures have applied in these areas under the EU Emergency Regulation. Since these provisions are set to expire at the end of June, a follow-up regulation is needed to continue enabling fast-track permitting.

The draft bill also includes provisions to manage the expansion of onshore wind energy. Once the surface contribution targets set in the Wind Energy Surface Area Requirements Act are met, the installation of wind turbines in open areas will only be permitted in exceptional cases. Exceptions are foreseen for so-called repowering projects, among others.