Robert Habeck has no illusions. “We will probably still miss our targets for 2022, even for 2023 it will be difficult enough,” said the Green politician in his first major interview after being appointed Minister of Economics with “Zeit” about the climate protection efforts of the new government.
A remarkable statement, Habeck is not only responsible for the economy but also for climate protection. But Habeck is building ahead. The expectations of him and the Greens are enormous, but Habeck needs time for the envisaged energy transition. So rather dampen hope a little. “We’re starting with a drastic deficit,” said Habeck.
How enormous the task is facing Habeck, the still-Greens chief, becomes particularly clear in the area of the energy transition. By 2030, the Ampel coalition partners have set out to generate 80 percent of electricity consumption from renewable energies. So far it is 42 percent, now it has doubled in just eight years.
If the turnaround succeeds, the country will get a new face. Thousands of new wind turbines, huge photovoltaic system parks on highways, huge power lines, from the air you will see blue roofs with PV systems. Habeck could register ambitions that go beyond those of a vice chancellor. If, on the other hand, the energy turnaround does not succeed, there will be no mobility turnaround and no transformation of industry into a climate-neutral economy. Habeck and the Greens would have failed. That is the height of fall for the 52-year-old.
[Wenn Sie aktuelle Nachrichten aus Berlin, Deutschland und der Welt live auf Ihr Handy haben wollen, empfehlen wir Ihnen unsere App, die Sie hier für Apple- und Android-Geräte herunterladen können.]
For the PhD philosopher, the next four years will be about concrete numbers. Around 16,000 new wind turbines will be needed by 2030 in order to be able to achieve the 80 percent target, estimates the Federal Association of Energy and Water Management (BDEW). Habeck himself reckons with 1,000 to 1,500 wind turbines per year, also because the systems are becoming higher and more efficient. Either way, the challenge is enormous. In 2020, just 420 new systems were connected to the grid, and in future there will be 38 per week.
“We do not fail at will, we fail at limits”
“The challenges are big, but realistic,” said Kerstin Andreae, formerly a Green politician herself, today BDEW managing director and thus a lobbyist for the energy sector, at the BDEW’s end-of-year press conference. Andreae is certain that companies are ready for the energy transition, but politicians are not yet. “We don’t fail at will, but we fail at limits.”
This primarily includes the tough planning and approval process for wind power plants in Germany. It currently takes around seven years to designate areas, plan projects, approve and finally build. The reasons for this are diverse. Too few administrative staff, enormous bureaucratic hurdles and a lack of space.
Because the wind turbines have to be somewhere, according to the coalition agreement, the federal states should in future keep two percent of their land free for renewable energies. So far, around 0.9 percent of the federal land has been designated for wind turbines, but a third of it is not built on because there are other protected assets. These include endangered bird species, but also the military, air traffic control and the weather service block areas.
Meteorologists quarrel with wind turbines because of interference signals
“Due to the operation of the wind turbines, disturbances in the radar data are to be expected,” said a spokesman for the German Weather Service (DWD) to the Tagesspiegel. The federal authority, which is based in the Ministry of Transport, appealed against the construction of 49 systems in 2020 and 2021. The legal dispute is likely to drag on for years.
The problem for meteorologists lies in the radar beams that their own weather radar systems emit. If a wind turbine is too close – usually within a radius of five kilometers – the radar beam is thrown back and displayed as an interfering signal at the DWD. For the meteorologists it then looks as if it was hailing at this point.
[“Wenn wir das schaffen, schreiben wir Geschichte.” Lesen Sie mit Tagesspiegel Plus, wie Wirtschaftsminister Robert Habeck die DNA des Landes verändern will.]
In Offenbach, where the weather service is based, one is not at all against the energy transition and climate protection. If a system is planned in the vicinity of the 17 radar systems of the DWD, the authority must veto according to the law. Often it is a battle for space, because the windy, exposed areas are also interesting for the weather experts. They cannot put their systems in the valley either. “Two national goals collide here: that of the energy transition and that of services of general interest through accurate storm and weather forecasts,” says the DWD spokesman.
A shortage of skilled workers and materials needs to be resolved
Habeck has announced talks with the heads of the authorities, but the strength of his arguments alone will not change the situation. “If renewable energies are now safety-relevant, the various goods must be weighed differently,” said Habeck of “Zeit”.
Ministry circles have heard that a first draft law could be presented as early as February in order to accelerate planning and approvals. Species protection could be redefined in this so that it is no longer the individual animal but the population as a whole that is protected. In addition, it should be easier to swap outdated and small systems for more modern, sometimes significantly higher systems.
Other problems that could slow down the energy transition remain unsolved. “The energy transition must not fail because there are not enough craftsmen, crane drivers and workers in the industry who build the wind turbines,” says Habeck himself. But that is exactly what threatens. In the solar industry alone, 50,000 new jobs are expected. Attracting skilled workers through immigration, as the traffic light is planning, should only solve part of the problem.
In the energy sector, there is another problem on the horizon: a lack of materials. If renewable energies are expanded worldwide, there could be bottlenecks in copper and aluminum.
In the Habeck warehouse, they know all of these hurdles and, like their boss, build ahead. Oliver Krischer, Parliamentary State Secretary under Habeck, dampens expectations: “16 years of braking, blocking and bureaucratising the expansion of the erenewable energies through CDU / CSU Governments have left deep marks, “he wrote on twitter. It is an attempt to buy time. But that is already running away from the new Minister of Economic Affairs.
