Rising ground rent drives up costs

Since ever higher land lease prices have to be paid for wind turbines, the generation of wind power in Germany is becoming more and more expensive.

As the newspaper "Die Welt" reports, the lease fees for land on which wind farms are to be built are rising in Germany, in some cases considerably. Yet wind energy should actually provide cheap "green" electricity for the hydrogen industry's electrolysis plants. Industry and consumers are also waiting for the politicians' promise - that renewable energies will lead to falling electricity prices - to finally be fulfilled. But it is not only the rent that is rising - at the turn of the year, the Federal Network Agency increased the maximum permitted level for wind power subsidies by 25 per cent to 7.35 cents per kilowatt hour. In addition, raw material and energy prices for the construction of wind turbines are rising, as are interest rates for loans. So the cost of electricity from wind power is rising, not falling.

In the view of the German Wind Energy Association (BWE), the "strong competition for land creates a one-sidedness in favour of land and forest owners". The BWE had therefore proposed a "lease height limit" in 2022, according to which the maximum lease height for wind turbines would be 45 times the average lease height for land used for agriculture - in addition to a share in the proceeds from the sale of electricity. Opposition to this is coming from agriculture, since according to the farmers' association many farms could only survive by leasing land for wind and solar energy.

But not only farmers demand higher rents, but also the public sector. The latter puts such areas up for public tender in small units and thus not only increases its income, but also drives up the cost of wind power - a contradiction to the climate protection commitments.