Thousands of blades in germany will land in the shredder. And from then on the country may be closing more wind farms that it opens every year. Germanys political leaders have given into wind power opponents have put climate protection goals at risk. When power is one of the greenest types of energy there is so why has it run aground in germany. The a 10 highway near put stop in northeastern germany where plans to build a wind farm along the motorway have been met with resistance from almost all the local villages. Except for should be losing. The plan for expanding wind power is to put up 7 yes 7 women turbines in for. Sash which belongs to those. Today will be voting for the building contracts which was. Cast in hope has been the merest philos a for 17 years and has spent years campaigning for climate protection. They were just scheduled to vote on the 7 Wind Turbines this evening. However a flyer suddenly surfaces calling on residents to protest against the plan. Not so fionnuala after all these years so many years of debate so many talks this happens today when we here in sheilas day has been through 7 committees anyone could have attended nobody did and now this flying so were very curious about what will happen tonight. On 3 hours later the wind opponents take up their positions. Because our folks at home for those you know. Just outside the meeting hall we meet the leader of the fight club blotter citizens and should have. Been treated loot prefers a different source of energy on the right as you must know even if they dont i dont want to use that nasty word nuclear has been a lot of progress in that area. Not Nuclear Fission and fusion. Thats good to know how would you feel about a Nuclear Fusion plant here. Unfortunately were not that far yet technically we have to see getting acceptance theres always a problem eventually when no one wants to have that in their backyard whether its wind power or nuclear who wants to have that. In the end weve all been programmed to want an easy to care for space thats just how it is. So where should electricity come from from coal that supposed to be eliminated by 2038 i doubt it. So we should keep the coal plants open longer so. What about climate change. Is c o 2 pollution the only thing ruining the climate i dont think so would any. Session begins at 7 pm people have just been protesting outside. The tension in the room is palpable. After an hour long discussion theyve all had of everyone in favor please raise your hand. Those against. Now you know abstaining. 21 and 2 abstentions. But those against wind power wont be giving up a well organized minority can often determine the outcome even though surveys indicate as many as 80 percent of germans are in favor of more wind power. Turbines already dot the landscape. Martin will be in the us is the head of a department at the ulysses Research Center near often. For several years he and a team of 20 scientists have been looking into how germany can achieve its. Energy transition and reach its climate targets in 2050 s cost effectively as possible. Even when power is the central backbone of the Energy Transition if its to be implemented economically in addition to wind energy on land and at sea wind is also the central element in relation to photovoltaics. The usual researchers use High Performance computers to calculate how to bring about an affordable Energy Transition. About half of todays Energy Requirements could be saved by switching to electric cars and innovating Heating Systems and making cuts to industrial consumption. The rest of the Energy Demand has to be met mainly by c o 2 neutral tricity. This electricity is generated by offshore wind farms biomass generator plants solar cells and above all land based Wind Turbines. To achieve this is cost effectively as possible Wind Turbines will have to supply more than half of Green Electricity in 2050 for which germany would need around twice as many wind farms. The scientists calculations show less energy comes from wind farms the climate targets will not be met. Germanys Energy Transition will become. Significantly more expensive. The build rate of new Wind Turbines has been decreasing for years meaning their proportion in Energy Produced hasnt grown quickly enough to reach climate targets for gigawatts will have to be added each year. This year will hardly increase over last years output. And more turbines may be taken off the grid than added in 2021. 1 of the reasons for the collapse in wind power expansion can be seen in westphalia and northwestern germany. Are working on a project of great relevance to the Energy Transition. They want to have fewer turbines producing more wind power by repairing the turbines. This entails replacing 11 old ones with a new more powerful turbines. The should enable them to deliver 3 and a half times as much electricity as before. 3 years after applying they finally receive the permit in summer of 21000. 00 however. There are hundreds of conditions in apartment. One of these says that we are only allowed to operate during complete darkness between the 1st of march and the 31st of october but. Thats absurd that would mean losing 40 percent of our annual yield on down times like that dont only obstruct Energy Transition they could also make it extremely expensive. Ever more conditions endless approval procedures and the frequent legal disputes are making expansion difficult. The daytime shut down aims to protect local wildlife. The red kite is a common bird in the region and yet the bird population here on the part of bourne plateau has been. Stable for years in spite of the Wind Turbines. 4 months later. When farm operator like is trying to solve a problem hes hoping a dutch team and this special bird can extend the new wind farms operating time. Here we have a female Peregrine Falcon a female is a bit bigger about 50 grams now well do a test to see if the wind turbine will start running when we get close with them. For as i said even so the wind turbine should stop if you get close. To correct this wed like to see. Thats for sure. The robo bird is normally used at airports to scare away birds that could disturb the air traffic. Counts. Here its being used to test whether cameras on the tower pick it up and slow down the turbine. Because. Most i dont know well see if it stops its relatively close no its not but ive never. Been accredited expert is also watching the experiment. Its turning slower right. Yes definitely. Dusty whats important here is that birds can detect slow movement and avoid it and. So we have to fall below a certain speed that birds can still recognize the clue to true high cards for the rest of us does this work we currently evaluating initial data so far it looks promising of course we still have to wait for the final analysis what you think of this it looks promising. Following a safe landing the test is evaluated in your hundreds like Months Office hi i love it or any. Other data from the camera system is also being analyzed for a year and a half the camera has scanned the sky for real birds of prey. Now its time to find out where the wind turbine has switched off each time. You have on our aim is to ensure that we can operate the turbines in the wind farm with these strict conditions economically by running them continuously and only switching them off when theyre actually birds close by. The new technology could help solve the conservation and wind Energy Conundrum you see this the danger the turbines posed to birds is one of the most common reasons why people are against them. Conservation versus wind power. How do experts like to see it. Hes the chairman of one of the most important Nature Conservation associations in europe with the acronym b you in. His organization supported a project in the region where a dike was moved a few 100 meters away from the river this created new habitat also for endangered species. Oh theres a sea eagle over there i basically land on a note in its wing span is said to me up to 230 or to 14 i think its enormous. And they breed on the other side of. The number of bird couples breeding here is almost tripled in addition its become an important place for wild geese and cranes to roost. Nearby be you and indeed has an important visitor and Conference Center in the castle benson. We want to find out would be un disposition on when power is. The problem is there for the big problems for come from industrial agriculture on fields and meadows its often struggle to find sufficient food because of it for example the red carpet which can no longer find my saw field stops industrial farming is a much bigger problem than all the wind power plants. So when power of Nature Conservation go together by country can go together if you put the wind farms on suitable carefully selected sites and you ensure that the conflicts are minimized even further in future for example through shutdown Warning Systems a large northeast. So when power and Wildlife Preservation can coexist. In the number of red breeding pairs has increased in germany since 1904 and this during a period when power was being massively expanded. Nevertheless citizens initiatives often use the red as a reason to oppose Wind Turbines which they describe as bird shredders. For many the preservation of the landscape is actually whats at stake. Here in the middle and region there are more than 300 active Wind Turbines. These were put up without lengthy approval or Legal Proceedings some of them are only a few 100 metres away from houses such as here in the village and when kitchen which is part of the stein for district. Residents here can participate directly in socalled citizen wind farms. For mayor finds miller and it was important that locals were included in the planning process from the beginning. Mr boehner through whats living with the wind turbine like really actually been doing that for a while now its not that i actually like the view i like the spinning roaches now and then listen i know is that had. On how the wind is generally and i like living with them. During this time for district theres an agreement that when farms shouldnt be for Financial Investors but for the local people invest. Some of i can participate in the financing or. If there are problems i know other people to whom i have to go and say that something isnt working. Citizen financial participation Contact People you can actually make. Additional business tax revenue for the district. Do such measures increase the acceptance of wind farms we went to the weekly market noise kitchen to ask. You what do you think of the winter buy here just now i like them they dont bother me. What about subsonic noise like you can i live you know in commercial and i dont use them. Because i think wind power is very good i live in cent we look out on the whole spread yes of course you can hear them so you can hear them does it bother you. Theres a Nuclear Power station in maine and so i find the Wind Turbines better and they belong to the regions and. Also when the minster line to region the municipality of shipping on friday afternoon in the local supermarket car park we ask what people think of the many Wind Turbines in the region as well theyre also somewhere we didnt bother me on the contrary. I dont really mind them ok so not too loud not know then whats the atmosphere like in the village you know it doesnt bother the people who live close by not that ive heard of that they think of a nice week of work and. The result after 2 hours we spoke to 31. 00 people and got 31. 00 positive comments we were amazed by the unanimity. In the nearby shipping up. When far the closest turbine is only 600 metres from the edge of town. Theres an extraordinary meeting of the wind farm shareholders managing director hina cornet explains the project yeah the hot topic is the federal governments planned distance regulations in the future the federal states should be able to prescribe a minimum distance of 1000 meters from residential buildings. Its a 1000 metre radius you see here the site would be gone the site and location would be gone all of it i think. That will mean the end of shipping a banks 30 year history with its use of wind energy. Is that if it is farming above all the acceptance is there we have not had any problems with residents and now all of a sudden everything is being ruined. Its incredible. Is that the politicians realise or even recognise what theyre destroying. The plan distance regulation is actually aimed at increasing the publics acceptance of Wind Turbines but even in the shrine for district which is fully behind wind power it will probably lead to a drop in wind power generation. The federal Environment Agency says it would also make expansion throughout germany more difficult. Berlin january 2020. Germanys Financial Daily 100 splot holds an Energy Summit like many in his party the c. D. U. Energy minister peter supports the controversial 1000 metre option but even though the deal seems bound to go through he says he can see the oppositions point even if youve got a field where you can put a winner will find it all very cosy because the lease brings in money and you have a house that looks sounds over. As a field you usually feel it in fact used by and youre inclined to join citizens initiatives it seems to be. Small but well organized citizens initiatives can make a big impact. But with a broad public support for wind energy still plays little role in this calculations zips equal to 70 percent of our primary energy needs are important and anyone who says we should change this in the future dont start saying where the land is to come from and how the expansion should be carried out go off of your heart to where we are in order to gas today go and nuclear fuel ronson we will import most Green Hydrogen in the future what you them. Import Green Hydrogen and. Thats what the federal governments response to the sluggish expansion of wind power is. That means the bio gas solar and wind power plants that meet the majority of germanys Energy Requirements in the future will be located outside the country. Theyll be located in countries that currently produce oil for example such as on the arabian peninsula. Here solar and wind power plants are expected to provide a lot of Green Electricity which will then flow into socalled electrolysis plants that extract energy rich hydrogen gas from the water. This is Green Hydrogen would that have to be transported to germany by ship in large quantities. But this is the thing for the better doesnt it make more sense to take the added value from the Energy System transformation within this country by then to continue to import large quantities of energy and so imports. Once again germany is a relatively small and densely populated country and therefore as in the past we will have to import large blocks of ice. And its a requirement employed not clean and Climate Friendly to clean up pretty tricky question. That would spell the end of any low cost Energy Transition made in germany. Or back at the Research Center and unishe much in it will be in years shows us and electrolysis plant for Green Hydrogen. This technology is crucial to the Energy Revolution because it means solar and wind power can be stored as an energy rich gas and transported to germany for acquired. However after converting the original green energy the Energy Conservation rate is only 10 percent not the 70 percent the politicians are touting. And their style of it to be blunt weve calculated this ourselves in models and its nonsense to say we have to import all the hydrogen wherever its from in other words without wind energy as the backbone of the Energy Transformation the Energy Transformation will not work it makes no sense to say that we want to expand wind power and will import everything instead because it wouldnt be economical in the long term. Using their computer models the units researchers have calculated the costs for the different forms of energy. The result. In the year 2015 wind power made in germany could already cost as little as 3. 04 per kilowatt hour. And produce solar power from about 6. 06. Imported Green Hydrogen would cost 0. 12 per kilowatt hour thats up to 4 times as much. When it arrives the Green Hydrogen will have to be transported from some german port. Not like the Solar Wind Power already on the german power grid. Relying mainly on the import of Renewable Energies will significantly increase costs for both consumers and industry in germany. Institute you do this in plymouth often as one of the worlds most Renowned Research institutes for wind power technology. In this hall rotor blades more than 80 meters long or clamped onto a concrete block and then tested for durability. The head of the institute is professor under u. S. Oil. We show him the pay to i my interview about importing Green Hydrogen. Of my. Own decided and therefore as in the past we will have to import large parts of our energy needs skipped there is no Green Hydrogen market of this size anywhere in the world it will be decades before these capacities are built up at some point somewhere in north africa patagonia or elsewhere. For safety reasons no one is allowed to be in the hall during a road or playtest so professor void shows me the procedure on a video terminal. One ton of force is applied to the rotor blade making demands on the blade that are higher than an aircraft construction and more comparable to space flight in practice they will have to function for years without much maintenance. So how Many Research laboratories like this are there 3 in the world to the re in the world. These and other technologies developed in germany mean that Wind Turbines made in germany are now fully competitive with conventional power plants. Does it make sense to use it in germany that its the c m s 1st of all we have to finance everything the finance the whole development oh yes if we pull the plug now we destroy the value of what weve created and theyll be picked up a broad by china but also brought in europe and we are left with the bill because its. Were in the Industrial Area of play mahathir. The slump in the wind power expansion has left its mark for Companies Used to manufacture of wind power plants here of the 4500 employees all but 500 have been laid off in the last few years. In northern germany this was simply the industry of the future just as aviation is for southern germany. Nationwide around 40000 jobs in the industry have been lost in recent years. But when power is booming worldwide and the fall hole for institute is in great demand internationally its ironic. Globally successful Climate FriendlyCutting Edge Technology from germany has little future in its own country. In this field the researchers work always depends on political decisions. Professor hoyt or has observed the entire political spectrum for many years. After the f. T. Has clearly positioned itself against wind energy in order to catch votes in the end the f. D. A. Is involved in Energy Policy because its pushing the c. D. U. Ahead by creating a mood against a wind energy of hard. Work. Is the a. F. D. Already helping to determine Energy Policy in germany. We look at the issues that played a role in the recent election campaigns and brandenburg saxony and the reagan among others. The expansion of wind power was often a topic of discussion both by the f. T. And the c. D. U. Wind energy means 3. 00 to 4000. 00 tons of reinforced concrete in the ground per turbine that means 0. 2 to 1. 00 hectare of clear forest per a wind turbine. I cant understand how they can destroy our beautiful to religion forest putting 50 truckloads of concrete into the ground so that winds up mines can be built that. What both politicians and many opponents of wind power fail to mention is that each wind turbine saves many times the amount of c o 2 that the clear trees could absorb. And the forest is usually replanted somewhere else misinformation like this hurts the industry. The boiler in theory the politicians want to expand renewables including wind power but in practice everything is being done to prevent it why. Because they are afraid of the angry citizens and every vote counts so everyone has to be kept happy should. The man and his team are still working on a camera recognition system that will identify birds and switch off the turbines but whether the authorities will ever license it is completely uncertain although the technology is recognised in france and has been in use for several years. In the district of time forth in the midst of the region production for about half the plants will soon cease then they will have to be repaired i. E. Replaced by new ones. Whether this can be done while still complying with the 1000 meter distance rule is questionable. Wind turbines may be changing our landscape. But our landscape will change a lot more if we dont protect the climate. The development of wind energy needs the involvement of our whole society. But its difficult to reach a consensus with people who fundamentally reject the. Politicians are currently creating new obstacles to the expansion of wind power however importing large quantities of Renewable Energies will lead to Higher Energy prices and make reaching our climate a long shot. The best participant. Was. The. Best compilation of last season. Just said. Thank. God. How does a virus spread. Why do we panic and when will all of this. Just 3 of the topics covered in the weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like any information on the coronavirus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also find us at. Science. This is the dog is live from berlin tal vacuum and levanon as the entire government steps down the lebanese Prime Minister announced the resignation of his government almost one week after the beirut blast he blamed the culture of corruption for the explosion which left a quarter of a 1000000 people homeless. Fellow rooster wrapped in anger after the government claims a landslide victory for president looking schenkel but his challenger says the vote was rigged and the European Union and the u. S. Comp their doubts to