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Studia Iuridica

HOW THE CONSTRUCTION OF WIND TURBINES CAN BE LEGISLATIVELY CONTROLLED ON THE BASIS OF PUBLIC INTEREST – on the constitutionality of the Citizens’ and Municipalities’ Participation Act in wind farms in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and on the concept of ‘overriding public interest’

2023, 98, No. 1

Maximilian Roth

Justus Liebig University in Giessen

DOI

10.31338/2544-3135.si.2023-98.11

Publication date

30.09.2023

Publishing model

open access

License type

CC BY 4.0 Int.

Field

Law

Discipline

law

Language of publication

English, Polish

Downloads

PDF 332 KB

Article

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Number of downloads:51

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Abstract

In order to implement the energy transition, the Federal Republic of Germany has been relying increasingly on wind energy for several years. Wind farms, both offshore and onshore, play an important role here. Nevertheless, wind energy in Germany suffers from a problem of acceptance. Local residents are afraid of visual and acoustic emissions, species protection concerns are raised, adverse effects on the landscape are claimed, and there are also fears of decrease in value of the properties. For this reason, the federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has enacted a law that provides for mandatory participation of citizens and communities in the operating companies of wind turbines (the so-called ‘citizens’ wind farms’). With this law, the federal state shows in an excellent example how state’s influence on the economy and finances can look like in relation to public interests. But this is not the only way the legislator controls these public interest purposes. Recently, it has increasingly been using the ‘overriding public interest’ in legal texts to speed up the construction of wind power plants. These two juxtaposed instruments will be examined in more detail and their suitability will be analysed separately. Finally, the article presents an outlook with a recommendation for action to the federal legislature.

Keywords:

increasing acceptance,freedom of occupation,citizen wind farms,energy transition,renewable energies,climate change,entrepreneurial freedom,wind turbines

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