So it seems that Germany’s ‘Green brigade’ are now cutting down trees across the country to make room for huge industrial wind turbines.
In an apparent bid to ‘save the planet’, activists are driving the destruction of parts of Germany’s famed forests. The same cohort who chained themselves to bulldozers to stop forest demolition in the 1970s, now seem happy to tear sections of it down to make room for wind power.
However, as the environmental consequences start to come back to bite, there seem to be at least some Germans who are ready and willing to fight back against the Green brigade.
Many of Germany’s rural communities are beyond fed up with having their environments threatened by industrial wind power. Over recent years, public resistance has grown, with hundreds of coordinated, pro-community networks emerging, blocking projects from happening and successfully suing for damages over the loss of the use and enjoyment of their family homes.
The German wind industry has met with strong opposition as of late, witnessing public opposition which has forced some new construction to a standstill. The rural fight-back against wind power in Germany was perhaps inevitable, with almost 30,000 wind turbines erected across the country in recent years, often in close proximity to homes, towns and villages.
Angered by the demolition of lush forestry and practically constant low-frequency noise and infrasound to make way for 300 tone, 200 metre wide wind turbines, ordinary Germans have responded in well-organised opposition.
In response, however, Germany’s Greens have introduced a law that would categorise all industrial wind power facilities as being “in the public interest” and essential to “public security”. In July, the Baden-Württemberg Government of the Greens and CDU announced plans to clear-cut state owned forests and build 1,000 wind turbines in the next legislative period.
Determined to crush any pockets of opposition to the move, policymakers have decided to cut even more valuable forest areas and to seal the deforested ground with tens of thousands of tons of concrete. To some opponents of such plans, it seems that the Greens are prepared to slash the environment in order to save it.
Despite resolute rejection of wind power by individual interest groups, the prevailing sentiment among the German population towards renewables is positive; general approval rates for further expansion still reach up to 93 percent, according to a 2018 survey by the Renewable Energies Agency (AEE).
Critics say that wind power damages both Germany’s landscape and the health of its citizens.They argue it results in permanently disfigured landscape, owing to the fact that each wind turbine means the clear-cutting of 0.35 km2 of forest, lost CO2 and moisture reservoirs, all to be sealed by 3500 tons of concrete each for each turbine. To date, such concrete blocks have never been removed, forming impassable barriers to deep-rooted trees and natural water control.
Furthermore, the press have practically ignored the fact that scientific research shows that wind turbines slow down the wind and cause temperature increases locally, two effects that dry out the soil. Cutting trees and erecting huge metal poles and blades also have negative consequences for birds, bats and other ecological factors, a jarring outcome for a Green initiative.
Another negative practical consequence of Germany’s all-out embrace of wind power is a significant hike in electric prices. German households pay the highest power prices in the world to support the expansion of renewable energy sources, and this is not about to change. Here in Ireland, there are also rising concerns about some renewables being unreliable, risking power blackouts across the country. Irish authorities should have predicted that the arrival of renewable energy data centres would place a significant burden on our electricity supplies. Over the past few months, there have been several near-misses, with amber alerts warning about an increased risk of blackouts.
Germany, it is predicted, will also face unpredictable supply with an over-reliance on renewables – but for many who love the country’s famed forests, the real cost may be the loss of the trees.