Leitfaden Repowering – Handlungsempfehlungen und Strategien für die Entwicklung von Windenergiestandorten

After several years of growing wind energy sector in Germany, a new phase of wind energy development began – the Repowering. Limited building space, technical progress and other factors made Repowering the most important perspective of land based wind energy. The expansion of renewable energy use is a main intention of most levels of the German authorities and Germany became a leading market for renewables in the past years. But building new and often higher wind turbines has different effects on landscape, nature and regional acceptance. That’s why the development involves chances and risks that were analyzed in this thesis to find recommendations for the design of tomorrows wind energy landscape. Although the wind park in Northern Germany is getting older and new technologies exist to use wind power more effectively, the vast majority of wind turbines is still from the first generation. Wind energy experts are valuing the potential of the Repowering process very differently but they agree in the high dependency on the economic and legal framework, which mean also the instruments of spatial planning. Different interviews with wind energy experts showed the variety of factors of influence, opinions and approaches connected to the Repowering and helped finding specific recommendations linked to the issues: wind energy policy, planning and space, environment and emissions as well as municipality and wind park operators structures. Interviews and literature showed a basic conflict within the aims of the different involved parties – Repowering of wind turbines is seen as a chance for the expansion of wind energy use but as a chance to correct undesirable developments of the past as well. The different opinions and ideas within these aims show that the dynamic development of renewable energy use in Germany needs appropriate planning instruments and strategies to design futures energy structures. Based upon the gathered information this thesis presents ideas, how to manage the Repowering process between these different intentions, to benefit from the chances and avoid the conflicts.