Wind power: Planned lease cap for wind turbines criticized

In order to save costs, land leases for onshore wind turbines should be limited. This planned cap is met with resistance.

Wind power: Rental income should be capped at 3.5 percent of annual electricity revenue.

Berlin. The federal government's plans to limit rental payments for onshore wind turbines are met with criticism. The AGDW - Forest Owners Association warned that a lease cap would endanger the expansion of renewable energies. “A lease cap would reduce the necessary acceptance for the use of wind power in rural areas and thus the expansion of wind power on land,” said AGDW President Andreas Bitter.

The expansion of renewable energies particularly includes the continued use of wind power over the forest. “This offers very good conditions at numerous locations for the increased use of wind power that politicians are aiming for,” says Bitter.

Owners of agricultural or forestry land can lease it for a wind power project and thereby generate long-term income. Federal Economics Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) is now planning to cap rental income at 3.5 percent of annual electricity revenue. This is part of the reform of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG), which is currently being discussed in the Bundestag.

The justification is that when using wind energy on land, the leasing costs offer considerable potential for reducing the EEG subsidy costs and thus easing the burden on the federal budget. Therefore, the permissible amount of land leases for wind turbines on land that are subsidized by the EEG and are subject to tender should be limited.

Bitter criticized that the federal government wanted to incomprehensibly intervene in well-functioning markets with the planned lease cap. “Private and municipal owners who provide space for the desired expansion of renewable energies should be encouraged as actors in a market-oriented energy transition instead of putting obstacles in their way.”

Bitter also referred to a report by constitutional lawyer Udo Di Fabio prepared on behalf of the forest owners. Accordingly, the lease cap encroaches on freedom of property, contract and occupation and violates the principle of proportionality.

The Association of Municipal Companies (VKU) welcomed the plans. “Every euro that does not go into lease payments relieves the federal budget and thus taxpayers by billions, without endangering the expansion goals for wind energy,” said VKU General Manager Ingbert Liebing. “At the same time, lucrative rental income remains possible for landowners and the expansion of wind power remains attractive.”

A report by the Research Center for the Energy Industry in Munich on behalf of the VKU shows that a lease cap would result in a total relief of around 13 billion euros by 2045 compared to a scenario with nationwide average leases of 10 percent. Lower lease payments led directly to lower project costs. With a rental rate of 3.5 percent, the rental income amounts to an average of around 32,000 euros per year per wind turbine.