Photo: ANP
Germany wants to take measures to speed up the construction of new wind turbines. For example, more land must be made available. In Flanders, a ban on gas connections to newly built homes and buildings will come into effect one year earlier. Both countries want to speed up the greening of energy supplies.
Germany aims to meet four-fifths of its electricity needs from renewable sources by 2030. Currently, only 0.8 percent of Germany’s land area is devoted to windmills. The bill introduced on Wednesday should increase that to 2 percent.
Countries can exchange quotas among themselves. So it is possible for one state to allocate more than 2 percent of its land to windmills while the other state less than that.
Flanders does not want more gas connections to newly built homes from 2025. The planned transition period in which hybrid heat pumps can be used is disappearing. These hybrid heat pumps will become mandatory from next year. This year, construction on a fuel oil heating facility is no longer permitted in new buildings.
However, there are still no countries with as much wind energy, according to figures from the UK. Enough power was wasted for 800,000 homes there in the past two years because windmills failed at sea, according to a report paid by energy company Drax Group. Too much energy has been generated and there are too few possibilities for that electricity to be stored.
