Wind power getting headwind in Germany | DW Documentary

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.

Channel: DW Documentary

Views: 343,044

Keywords: Documentary, Documentaries, documentaries, DW documentary, full documentary, DW, documentary 2020, documentary, wind power, energy transition, renewable energy, Germany, clean energy, climate change, energy, wind energy, wind power germany, sustainable, sustainable energy, sustainability, wind, wind power sector, wind germany, nuclear transition, wind transition, german energy transition

Id: Qr5PEAK1t3U

Length: 28min 26sec (1706 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 11 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/x3DrLunatic]

Video unavailable

This video is not available.

What the hell? I'm from Germany and can't access a video made by a German (well multilingual but headquartered and founded in Germany) news outlet?

EDIT: It loads with a proxy, here is hoping that it is just a server issue because sometimes I got http error 429, too many requests.

[u/hypercomms2001]

Renewables have a religious zeal about it, and those overcome by this zeal will not take kindly to having their faith in renewables invalidated...especially by evolving nuclear technology ... it would like proving a a realigoud zealot that in fact their God does exist. We saw this when Michael Moore came out with his well researched and fact checked film that showed renewable energy was a scam...and “Biomass” was and euphemism for wood chips... I wonder what a “Biomass GenerAtor “ is?

[u/DV82XL]

There is no evidence that industrial wind power is likely to have a significant impact on carbon emissions. The European experience is instructive. Indeed, a review of the numbers shows that wind power actually increase greenhouse gas emissions in many cases, depending on the carbon-intensity of back-up generation required because of its intermittent character.

In debates over climate change, and in particular subsidies to renewable energy, there are two kinds of green. First there are some environmental greens who view the problem as so urgent that all measures that may have some impact on greenhouse gas emissions, whatever their cost or their impact on the economy and employment, should be undertaken immediately.

Then there are the fiscal greens, who, being cool to carbon taxes and cap-and-trade systems that make polluters pay, favour massive public subsidies to themselves for renewable energy projects, whatever their relative impact on greenhouse gas emissions. These two groups are motivated by different kinds of green. The only point of convergence between them is their support for massive subsidies to renewable energy (such as wind turbines).

This unholy alliance of these two kinds of greens (doomsdayers and rent seekers) makes for very effective, if opportunistic, politics, just as it makes for lousy public policy: Politicians attempt to pick winners at our expense in a fast-moving technological landscape, instead of creating a socially efficient set of incentives to which we can all respond.