Germany’s onshore wind market is a remarkable success story, with 2,400 onshore wind turbines totalling 14GW newly approved in the last year.

But the country stands at a crossroads, with upcoming federal elections on 23 February in which the two parties currently leading in the polls are either agnostic or actively hostile towards wind power.

So, can the fragile gains made under the current administration survive the election?

Katja Wünschel, chief executive of RWE’s renewables business in Europe and Australia and Karsten Brueggemann, vice president, region central, for the Nordex Group, talk about how these policy and regulatory gains have translated into new onshore wind power in Germany and how they will capitalise on the improved prospects in their home market. Meanwhile, Mirko Moser Abt, chief policy officer for German wind energy association BWE, discusses the political backdrop to these changes.

In interviews recorded at last autumn’s Wind Energy Hamburg conference, our guests for episode 31 of the Wind Power podcast explored the reasons for Germany’s onshore wind success, how far-right parties are making advances in local elections and the temperature of German public opinion towards wind power in an age of industrial scale social media-fueled disinformation about climate change.

This episode was produced by Inga Marsden. 

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