BMWK draft bill from 28/08/2024

On 28 August 2020, the BMWK presented a draft bill that aims to establish a uniform regulation for the participation of citizens and municipalities in renewable energy installations. Until now, operators have been able to voluntarily involve local authorities in accordance with Section 6 of the Renewable Energy Sources Act and the federal states have had the option of issuing more extensive provisions on citizen participation and increasing acceptance for the construction of plants. Some federal states such as Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saarland have made use of this and have already passed laws on mandatory public participation, which has now led to inconsistent state legislation. An attempt at standardised federal regulation failed three years ago due to constitutional doubts. Now the BMWK is making a new attempt to at least limit the scope of the federal states.