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Dresden. If you drive through the villages in Saxon Switzerland, for example, you will occasionally see protest posters against new wind turbines. For a long time, Saxony was at the bottom of the league when it came to the expansion of renewable energies, partly due to strong public protest. But that is changing and the state is catching up. The turn of the year and the start of the new state government are a good opportunity to take stock and provide an outlook on how the energy transition in Saxony is progressing.
Greater expansion of photovoltaics and wind power
The Association for the Promotion of the Use of Renewable Energies, VEE Sachsen e.V. for short, refers to the data from the "Climate Dashboard Saxony" project. According to this, a total of 2,386.5 megawatts (MW) of new photovoltaic capacity has been installed since 2019, resulting in an additional yield of around 2,625.15 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity per year.
A total of 154.5 MW of new wind power capacity has been installed in the last five years, which corresponds to an additional yield of around 324.45 GWh of electricity. A total of 1,375.025 MW of wind energy and 3,969.272 MW of photovoltaics are currently installed in Saxony.
Targets in the energy and climate program partially achieved
However, it was not enough to meet the targets of the Saxon Energy and Climate Program (EKP). Interim expansion targets are defined there. These provide for an increase in electricity generation of around 2,000 GWh between 2019 and 2024 - for solar and wind energy respectively. The interim expansion targets for solar energy were clearly met, but only 17 percent for wind energy. However, the VEE points out that the number of wind turbines in the approval process has increased significantly. "We are therefore probably facing a wave of expansion, particularly in wind energy," emphasizes VEE Managing Director Andreas Poldrack.
This is confirmed by the Saxon Ministry of Economic Affairs, which is once again responsible for energy policy. By the end of 2024, 44 wind turbines had been approved in the state, "as many as in 2022 and 2023 combined", it says. And there are more to come. In the November tendering round for EEG funding commitments, Saxony was awarded contracts for 14 wind turbines with a total capacity of 87.4 MW. If all the wind turbines approved in 2024 are connected to the grid, they will be able to supply around 300,000 average private households in Saxony with electricity, according to officials at the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
An overview of the current approval procedures can be found here:https://www.energie.sachsen.de/ausbau-windenergie-5148.html
Record sums for the expansion of the electricity grids
To ensure that more and more green electricity comes out of the sockets in Saxony, the systems not only have to be installed, but also connected to the electricity grids. Sachsenenergie AG alone connected around 21,000 solar systems, balcony power plants, wind turbines and storage facilities to its grids in Saxony in 2024. Solar systems make up the largest share. According to the company, 450 applications for solar systems from private and commercial customers are currently still being processed. "It takes an average of three weeks from the complete receipt of the documents to the dispatch of the technical grid statements," emphasizes the company spokeswoman.
The largest municipal energy supplier in eastern Germany has invested around 210 million euros in the electricity grids in Dresden and eastern Saxony in 2024, more than in previous years. In the coming year, as much as 280.6 million euros will be invested in the expansion of the electricity grid.
Mitnetz Strom, the distribution grid operator of the Envia-M Group, has registered around 30,000 solar installations with a gross output of up to 30 kilowatts that went into operation this year as of December 3, 2024. Mitnetz Strom's grid area covers southern and western Saxony as well as parts of Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Brandenburg. According to the company, around 2,500 orders are currently still being processed, which usually takes four weeks.
Customers will not lose the feed-in tariffs. - Spokesperson for Mitnetz Strom
The waiting times for customers who want to feed electricity into the grid are significantly longer. They can take up to six months or longer. The Mitnetz Strom spokesperson cites the switch to a new digital billing system and incomplete documentation for a "significant proportion of customers" as the reasons for this. He assures: "Customers will not lose their feed-in tariffs even if there are delays, but will be paid retroactively". The largest distribution grid operator in eastern Germany has invested around 426 million euros in the expansion, reinforcement and smartification of its distribution grids in 2024 alone.
New laws bring momentum to the energy transition
While Saxony has often been in last place or one of the last places in terms of expansion for many years, the Association for the Promotion of the Use of Renewable Energies now praises a "considerable dynamic". This was triggered by a large number of regulations at state level, such as the flexibility clause that allows wind turbines to be erected in forests, participation regulations and the guidelines on species protection. However, the 2 percent area target set by the federal government is also creating movement. Since 2023, the law has stipulated that two percent of Germany's land must be designated for wind energy by 2032.
"Light and shade" in the coalition agreement
But what happens now that the Green Party is no longer represented in the new state government? In principle, the coalition agreement announces that the policy of expanding renewables will be consistently continued. The new state government of the CDU and SPD is clearly committed to the goals of the EKP 2021 and also wants to support a climate fund at federal level. "It is positive that the government intends to build on what has been achieved in recent years. However, the plans in the coalition agreement of the last government period seemed more concrete," says VEE Managing Director Poldrack. It is partly unclear which specific projects are to be implemented. He is calling for the energy program to be tightened up, as it does not meet the Paris climate targets. However, there are no plans for this in the coalition agreement.
The VEE is critical of the announced expansion of a charging infrastructure for hydrogen vehicles. "We do not see any efficient use cases for this - in our view, this is the wrong direction to take," it says. Green hydrogen will be a sought-after raw material for the chemical and steel industries and will play a role in energy storage, but not in normal car transportation.
Even if the VEE sees "no efforts" in the coalition agreement to significantly accelerate the energy transition in Saxony, it expects a further dynamic increase in approvals and turbine installations by 2025. The political framework conditions at federal and state level have been set, the course has been set - and more and more municipalities are realizing that it is advantageous to control the planning of wind power plants themselves.
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