The beginning of the
end for a wind farm.
Wind power is an important tool
in protecting our climate.
But as of
next year,
thousands of blades in Germany
will land in the shredder.
And from
then on,
the country may be closing more wind
farms than it opens every year.
Germany’s political
leaders have given in to
wind-power opponents and put
climate protection goals at risk.
Wind power is one of the greenest
types of energy there is.
So why has it run
aground in Germany?
The A10 highway near Potsdam
in northeastern Germany,
where plans to build a wind
farm along the motorway
have meet with resistance from
almost all the local villages.
Except for
Schwielowsee.
The plan for expanding wind
power is to put up seven —
yes,
seven —
wind turbines in Ferch, which
belongs to Schwielowsee.
Today, we’ll be voting for
the building contracts.
Kerstin Hoppe has been the mayor
of Schwielowsee for 17 years,
and has spent years campaigning
for climate protection.
The village is
scheduled to vote on
the seven wind turbines
this evening —
when a flyer surfaces
calling on residents to
demonstrate
against the plan.
After all these years,
so many years of debate,
after so many talks,
this happens today,
when we here in
Schwielowsee
have been through
seven committees.
Anyone could
have attended.
Nobody
did.
And now
this flyer.
So, we’re all very curious about
what will happen tonight.
Three hours later, the wind-opponents
take up their positions.
Looks
good.
Backpack and
in front?
Just outside the
meeting hall,
we meet the leader of the
‘Waldkleeblatt’ citizen’s initiative.
Winfried Ludwig prefers a
different source of energy.
I don’t want to use that
nasty word “nuclear” —
but there has been a lot
of progress in that area.
Not nuclear fission,
but fusion.
How would you feel about a
nuclear fusion power plant here?
Unfortunately, we’re not
that far yet technically.
We’d have
to see.
Getting acceptance
is always a problem.
No one wants to have
that in their backyard.
Whether it’s wind
power or nuclear —
who wants to
have that?
In the end we’ve all been
programmed to want an
easy-to-care-for
space —
that’s just
how it is.
So where should
electricity come from?
From
coal.
That’s supposed to be
eliminated by 2038?
I doubt
it.
So, we should keep the
coal plants open longer?
I’d say
so.
What about
climate change?
Is CO2 pollution the only
thing ruining the climate?
I don’t
think so.
The session
begins at 7pm.
People have just been
protesting outside.
The tension in the
room is palpable.
After an hour-long
discussion, they vote.
Everyone in favor,
please raise your hand.
Those
against.
None.
Abstaining,
two.
21 for and 2
abstentions.
But those against wind
power won’t be giving up.
A well-organized minority can
often determine the outcome,
even though surveys indicate as
many as 80 percent of Germans
are in favor of
more wind power.
Turbines already
dot the landscape.
Martin Robinius is head of a department at
the Jülich research center near Aachen.
For several
years,
he and a team of 20 scientists
have been looking into how
Germany can achieve
its Energiewende —
or energy
transition —
and reach its climate targets in 2050
as cost-effectively as possible.
Wind power is the central backbone
of the energy transition —
if it is to be implemented
economically.
In addition to wind energy
on land and at sea,
wind is also the central element
in relation to photovoltaics.
The Jülich researchers use
high-performance computers to
calculate how to bring about an
affordable energy transition.
About half of today's energy
requirements could be
saved by switching
to electric cars and
innovative heating systems
and making cuts to
industrial
consumption.
The rest of the energy demand
has to be met mainly by
CO2-neutral
electricity.
This electricity is generated
by offshore wind farms,
biomass generator
plants, solar cells,
and above all land-based
wind turbines.
To achieve this as
cost-effectively as possible,
wind turbines will have to supply more
than half of green electricity in 2050,
for which Germany would need
around twice as many wind farms.
The scientists' calculations show if
less energy comes from wind farms,
the climate targets
will be met.
Or Germany’s energy
transition will become
significantly
more expensive.
The build rate of new wind turbines
has been decreasing for years —
meaning their proportion in energy
produced hasn’t grown quickly enough.
To reach climate
targets,
four gigawatts will have
to be added each year.
This year will hardly increase
over last year's output.
And more turbines may be taken
off grid than added in 2021.
One of the reasons for the
collapse in wind power expansion
can be seen in Westphalia
in northwestern Germany.
Johannes Lackmann and Michael
Flocke are working on
a project of great relevance
to the energy transition.
They want to have fewer
turbines producing more
wind power by repowering
the turbines.
This entails replacing 11
old ones with eight new,
more powerful
turbines.
These should enable
them to deliver
three-and-a-half times as
much electricity as before.
Three years
after applying,
they finally received the
permit in summer 2019. However?
There are hundreds of
conditions in the permit.
One of these
says that
we are only allowed to operate
during complete darkness
between the first of March
and the 31st of October.
That’s
absurd.
That would mean losing 40
percent of our annual yield.
Downtimes like that don’t only
obstruct energy transition,
they could also make it
extremely expensive.
Ever more
conditions;
endless approval
procedures;
and the frequent legal disputes
are making expansion difficult.
The daytime shutdown aims
to protect local wildlife.
The red kite is a common
bird in that region —
and yet the bird population
here on the Paderborn plateau
has been stable
for years —
in spite of the
wind turbines.
Four months
later.
Wind farm operator Lackmann
is trying to solve a problem.
He is hoping a Dutch team
and this ‘special bird’
can extend his new wind
farm’s operating time.
Here we have a female
peregrine falcon —
a female is a bit
bigger, about 50 grams.
Now we'll do a
test to see if
the wind turbine will
stop running when
we get close
with the bird.
So, the wind turbine should
stop if you get close?
Correct.
This we’d
like to see.
The robo-bird is normally
used at airports
to scare away birds that
could disturb air traffic.
Here, it’s being used to
test whether cameras on
the tower pick it up and
slow down the turbine.
Now we'll see
if it stops;
it's relatively
close now.
An accredited expert is also
watching the experiment.
It's turning
slower, right?
Yes,
definitely.
What’s important
here is that
birds can detect slow
movement and avoid it.
So, we have to fall
below a certain speed
that birds can
still recognize.
Mr. Loske, does
this work?
We are currently evaluating
the initial data.
So far it looks
promising.
Of course, we still have to
wait for the final analysis.
What did you
think of this?
It looks
promising.
Following a
safe landing,
the test is evaluated in
Johannes Lackmann’s office.
Hi, Hi...
Other data from the camera
system is also being analyzed.
For a year
and a half,
the camera has scanned the
sky for real birds of prey.
Now it’s time to
find out whether
the wind turbine has
switched off each time.
Our aim is to
ensure that
we can operate the turbines
in the wind farm —
with these strict
conditions —
economically by running
them continuously,
and only switching them
off when there are
actually birds
close by.
The new technology
could help solve
the conservation and
wind energy conundrum.
The danger the
turbines pose to birds
is one of the most common reasons
why people are against them.
Bird conservation
versus wind power.
How do experts like
Olaf Bandt see it?
He is the chairman of one
of the most important
nature conservation
associations in Europe,
with the acronym
B-U-N-D.
His organization supported a
project in the region where
a dike was moved a few hundred
meters away from the river.
This created
new habitat —
also for endangered
species.
There's a sea
eagle over there.
I bet it'll
land on an oak.
Its wingspan is
over two meters,
up to two thirty
or two forty.
It’s
enormous...
Fantastic.
And they breed on
the other side?
The number of bird couples
breeding here has almost tripled.
In addition, it’s become
an important place for
wild geese and
cranes to roost.
Nearby, BUND has an important
visitor and conference center
in the Castle
Lenzen.
We want to find out BUND's
position on wind power.
The big problems for
birds come from
industrial agriculture
on fields and meadows.
Birds often struggle to find
sufficient food because of it.
For example,
the red kite,
which can no longer find
mice or field hamsters.
Industrial farming is a
much bigger problem than
all the wind
power plants.
So, wind power and nature
conservation go together?
They can go together if you put
the wind farms on suitable,
carefully
selected sites,
and you ensure that the conflicts are
minimized even further in future,
for example through shutdown
and warning systems.
So, wind power and wildlife
preservation can coexist.
The number of red kite
breeding pairs has
increased in Germany
since 1994.
And this, during a period
when wind power was
being massively
expanded.
Nevertheless, citizens' initiatives
often use the red kite
as a reason to oppose
wind turbines,
which they describe
as bird shredders.
For many, the preservation of the
landscape is what’s actually at stake.
Here in the
Münsterland region,
there are more than 300
active wind turbines.
These were put up without lengthy
approval or legal proceedings.
Some of them are only a few
hundred meters away from houses,
such as here in the
village Neuenkirchen,
which is part of
Steinfurt district.
Residents here can participate directly
in the so-called citizen wind farms.
For Mayor Franz
Möllering,
it was important that
locals were included in
the planning process
from the beginning.
Ms Bonatz, what's living with
the wind turbine like for you?
You've been doing
that a while now.
I actually
like the view.
I like the
spinning rotors.
Now and then there
is some noise,
depending on how
the wind is.
But generally I like
living with them.
Here in the
Steinfurt district,
there is an agreement that wind farms
shouldn’t be for financial investors,
but for the
local people.
I can participate
in the financing.
Or if there
are problems,
I know the people to whom
I have to go and say
that something
isn’t working.
Citizen financial
participation —
contact people you
can actually meet —
additional business tax
revenue for the district.
Do such measures increase the
acceptance of wind farms?
We went to the weekly market
in Neuenkirchen to ask.
What do you think of the
wind turbines here?
I like them. They
don’t bother me.
Are they
too loud?
I live here in Neuenkirchen,
I don't hear them.
I think wind power
is very good.
I live in
Saint Arnold.
We look out on the
whole spread.
Yes, of course you
can hear them.
You can
hear them.
Does that
bother you?
There’s a nuclear power
station in Lingen,
so I find the wind
turbines better.
And they belong
to region.
Also, in the
Münsterland region —
the municipality
of Schöppingen.
Friday afternoon in the
local supermarket car park.
We ask what people think of the
many wind turbines in the region.
There are also some
where we live.
They don't bother me,
on the contrary.
I don't really
mind them.
Okay, so not
too loud?
Nope!
And what is the mood
in the village?
Are the people who live
close by bothered?
Not that I’ve
heard of.
Thank you, have
a nice weekend.
The result after
two hours,
we spoke to 31 people and
got 31 positive comments.
We are amazed by
the unanimity.
In the nearby “Schöppinger
Berg” wind farm,
the closest turbine is only about
600 meters from the edge of town.
There’s an extraordinary meeting
of the wind farm shareholders.
Managing Director Heiner
Konert explains the project.
A hot topic is the
federal government’s
planned distance
regulation the future,
the federal states
should be able to
prescribe a minimum distance of 1000
meters from residential buildings.
It’s a 1000-meter
radius.
You see here, the site
would be gone, the site,
the location, it would
be gone, all of it.
That will mean the end of Schöppinger
Berg’s thirty-year history,
with its use of wind
energy, all history.
Above all, the
acceptance is there,
we have not had any
problems with residents.
And now all of a sudden
everything is being ruined.
It's
incredible.
Do the politicians realize
or even recognize
what they are
destroying?
The planned distance regulation
is actually aimed at
increasing the public’s
acceptance of wind turbines.
But, even in the
Steinfurt district,
which is fully
behind wind power,
it will probably lead to a
drop in wind-power generation.
The Federal Environment
Agency says it would
also make expansion throughout
Germany more difficult.
Berlin, January 2020, at
Germany’s financial daily
Handelsblatt holds
an “energy summit.”
Like many in his
party, the CDU,
Energy Minister Peter Altmaier
supports the controversial
1000-metre
option.
But even though the deal
seems bound to go through,
he says he can see the
opposition’s point.
If you’ve got a field where
you can put a windmill,
you’ll find it
all very cozy,
because the lease
brings in money.
And if you have a house that
looks out over the field,
you usually feel
it affects you
and you are inclined to
join citizens' initiatives.
Small but well-organized citizens'
initiatives can make a big impact.
But the broad public support
for wind energy still plays
little role in his
calculations.
70 percent of our primary
energy needs are imported.
And anyone who says we should
change this in the future
must also say where the
land is to come from
and how the expansion
should be carried out.
But where we import
oil and gas today,
coal and nuclear
fuel rods,
we will import more green
hydrogen in the future.
Import green
hydrogen?
That is the Federal
Government's response to
the sluggish expansion
of wind power.
It means the biogas, solar
and wind power plants
that meet the majority of
Germany's energy requirements
in the future will be located
outside the country.
They will be in countries
that currently produce oil,
for example, such as on
the Arabian Peninsula.
Here, solar and wind power
plants are expected to
provide a lot of
green electricity,
which will then flow into
so-called electrolysis plants
that extract energy-rich
hydrogen gas from water.
This “green
hydrogen”
would then have to
be transported to
Germany by ship in
large quantities.
Doesn’t it make more sense
to take the added value
from the energy system
transformation within this country,
than to continue to import
large quantities of energy?
Once
again.
Germany is a relatively small
and densely populated country,
and therefore,
as in the past,
we will have to import large
parts of our energy requirement,
but clean and
climate friendly.
That would spell
the end of
any low-cost energy
transition made in Germany.
We are back at the
research center in Jülich.
Martin Robinius shows us an
electrolysis plant for green hydrogen.
This technology is crucial
to the energy revolution,
because it means solar and
wind power can be stored as
an energy-rich gas and transported
to Germany if required.
A cost-effective transformation
for just 10 percent,
not the 70 percent the
politicians are talking about.
To be blunt, we have calculated
this ourselves in models,
and it’s nonsense to say we have
to import all the hydrogen,
wherever
it’s from.
In other
words,
without wind energy as the backbone
of the energy transformation,
the energy transformation
will not work.
It makes no sense to
say that we won’t
expand wind power and we’ll
import everything instead,
because it wouldn’t be
economical in the long term.
Using their
computer models,
the Jülich researchers have
calculated the costs for the
different forms
of energy.
The
result?
In the year 2050,
wind power —
made in
Germany —
could already cost as little
as 3.4 cents per kilowatt hour
and produce solar power
from about 6.6 cents.
Imported “green
hydrogen”
would cost 12 cents
per kilowatt hour.
That is, up to four
times as much.
When it arrives, the green
hydrogen will have to be
transported from
some German port —
not like the solar or wind power
already in the German power grid.
Relying mainly on the import
of renewable energies will
significantly increase
costs for both consumers
and industry
in Germany.
The Fraunhofer Institute
“IWES” in Bremerhaven
is one of the world's most
renowned research institutes for
wind power
technology.
In this hall, rotor blades
more than 80 meters long
are clamped into a concrete block
and then tested for durability.
The head of the institute is
Professor Andreas Reuter.
We show him the Peter
Altmaier interview about
“importing green
hydrogen.”
... and therefore,
as in the past,
we will have to import large
parts of our energy needs?
There is no green hydrogen market
of this size anywhere in the world.
It will be decades before
these capacities are
built up at some point,
somewhere in North Africa,
Patagonia or
elsewhere.
For safety
reasons,
no one is allowed to be in the
hall during a rotor blade test,
so Prof. Reuter shows me the
procedure on a video terminal.
One ton of force is applied
to the rotor blade,
making demands on the blade
that are higher than in
aircraft construction and more
comparable to space flight.
In practice,
they will have to function for
years without much maintenance.
Wow!
So how many research laboratories
like this are there?
Three in
the world.
Three in
the world.
These and other technologies
developed in Germany
mean that wind turbines
made in Germany
are now fully competitive with
conventional power plants.
Does make sense to not
use it in Germany?
First of all, we have
to finance everything,
finance the whole
development.
If we pull the
plug now,
we destroy the value of
what we have created
and they will be
picked up abroad.
By China, but also
abroad in Europe.
And we are left
with the bill.
We are in the industrial
area of Bremerhaven.
The slump in the wind power
expansion has left its mark.
Four companies used to manufacture
wind power plants here.
Of the 4500
employees,
all but 500 have been laid
off in the last few years.
In Northern
Germany,
this was simply the
industry of the future.
Just as aviation is
for southern Germany.
Nationwide, around 40,000 jobs in the
industry have been lost in recent years.
But wind power is
booming worldwide,
and the Fraunhofer Institute is
in great demand internationally.
It’s
ironic.
Globally
successful,
climate-friendly cutting-edge
technology from Germany
has little future
in its own country.
In this field, the researchers’ work
always depends on political decisions.
Prof. Reuter has observed the entire
political spectrum for many years.
The AFD has clearly
positioned itself
against wind energy in
order to catch voters.
In the end, the AFD is
involved in energy policy,
because it is pushing
the CDU ahead
by creating a mood
against wind energy.
Is the AFD already helping to
determine energy policy in Germany?
We look at the issues that played a
role in recent election campaigns
in Brandenburg, Saxony and
Thuringia, among others.
The expansion of wind power was
often a topic of discussion,
both by the AFD
and the CDU.
Wind energy means three
to four thousand tons of
reinforced concrete in
the ground per turbine.
That means 0.2 to 1 hectare of
cleared forest per wind turbine.
I can't understand how
they can destroy our
beautiful Thuringian Forest
so that wind turbines
can be built
there.
Fifty truckloads of concrete are
being driven into the ground.
What both politicians and
many opponents of wind power
fail to mention is that each
wind turbine saves many times
the amount of CO2 that the
cleared trees could absorb.
And the forest is usually
replanted somewhere else.
Misinformation like this
hurts the wind industry.
In theory, the politicians
want to expand renewables,
including
wind power,
but in practice everything
is being done to prevent it.
Why?
Because they are afraid
of the angry citizens,
and every
vote counts.
So, everyone has
to be kept happy.
Lackmann and his team
are still working on
a camera recognition system that will
identify birds and switch off the turbines.
But whether the authorities will ever
license it is completely uncertain,
although the technology
is recognized in France
and has been in use
for several years.
In the district of Steinfurt
in the Münsterland region,
production for about half of
all plants will soon cease.
Then they will have
to be re-powered,
i.e. replaced
by new ones.
Whether this can
be done while
still complying with the
1000-meter distance rule —
is questionable.
Wind turbines may be
changing our landscape.
But our landscape will
change a lot more if
we don’t protect
the climate.
The development of
wind energy needs the
involvement of our
whole society.
But it is difficult to reach
a consensus with people who
fundamentally
reject it.
Politicians are currently
creating new obstacles to
the expansion
of wind power.
However, importing large
quantities of renewable energies
will lead to higher
energy prices —
and make reaching our
climate goals a long shot.
