Opposition to wind farms is fuelling support for Alternative for Germany (AfD), with locals who protest that their country “is not a wind farm” turning to the climate sceptic party, which has pledged to tear them down. The Telegraph has more.
When evening draws in, there is no escape from the towering windmills of Crivitz, a town where homeowners live on the front line of Germany’s energy crisis.
As the sun starts to slip below the horizon, the 600ft-tall turbines cast monstrous shadows across fields and forests, while some emit a harsh electric hum.
“They are springing up everywhere,” Christian Schroeder, who lives next to a cluster of turbines near Crivitz, told the Telegraph. “We are hemmed in on all sides by them. It is crazy.”
The turbines around the town of 5,000 residents in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are a culture war flashpoint before regional elections this Sunday.
For the hard-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD), they are an ugly symbol of the failure to replace cheap Russian gas imports and nuclear power.
Posters complaining that “our country is not a wind farm” have sprung up on quiet lanes around Crivitz, where one is more likely to encounter a stray deer than a fellow driver.
Schroeder, a 45 year-old salesman, and his 44 year-old partner Adriana Morcinek moved to the outskirts of the town to build their dream home six years ago.
Now they are confronted with every homeowner’s nightmare, as the giant turbines loom over their doorstep.
The couple said they received reassurances from local officials in 2019 that no wind farms would be built near their planned home, which they hoped to one day pass on to their two daughters.
They were later promised cheaper energy bills, but that was scant consolation for the devastating effect on the price of their house.
Now, more than 50 wind turbines are built, under construction or planned in the Crivitz area.
“We were really disappointed,” said Schroeder, adding that local protests against the project had made no difference. He fears things are only going to worsen when the windmills near their home, which are not yet operational, begin turning.
Homeowners already blighted by other wind farms in the region complain of their whirr and hum, as well as shadows cast by their rotating blades tipped with red lights.
Morcinek said: “We were told we won’t see these red lights. That they’ll only turn on when there are airplanes nearby. But if you look out in the evening, you can see them on the horizon. Who is going to want to buy this house now?”
Wind power is the cornerstone of the German Energiewende – the transition to renewables triggered by Angela Merkel, the former chancellor’s decision to phase out nuclear power after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
As Germany looked to natural gas to bridge the gap, Merkel pressed on with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, despite warnings it would make Germany more dependent on Kremlin-controlled gas supplies.
Nord Stream 2’s pipelines make landfall in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a state in the former Communist East that lags economically behind the old West Germany and where attitudes towards Russia are warmer.
But after Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Olaf Scholz, the then chancellor, cancelled Nord Stream 2. The £14.5 billion project had been built, but never went into operation.
It was later blown up in a suspected Ukrainian act of sabotage.
The loss of cheap gas had serious consequences for Germany’s industry, exports, economy and the cost of living, which was felt even more keenly in the poorer East.
A year after Putin’s invasion, Scholz’s coalition, which included the Greens, switched off its final three nuclear reactors.
Friedrich Merz, the current German Chancellor, believes the nuclear phase-out was a colossal mistake. He has called wind turbines “ugly”, but the political damage is done: it is a much more powerful source of votes for the hard-Right AfD than his centre-Right Christian Democrats (CDU) party.
The AfD manifesto in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania calls for an end to subsidies for wind energy and for a halt to all further wind turbine construction.
Alice Weidel, the AfD federal leader, has also called for existing wind turbines to be torn down.
Worth reading in full.
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Turbine farms destroy land value, they murder hundreds of birds p.a., they send sound frequency noise disruptions into the atmosphere/ecosphere, they damage the environment, they use 3 tonnes min of steel + plastic, concrete, lubrication oil, cannot be recyled and have heavy operational maintenance.
Besides all that they destroy the landscape visually, aesthetically.
Part of the money laundering scam called ‘climate’.
AfD is right – rip them all down.
Vote Green – get what you deserve.
In the area where AfD have done well recently, there was a fair bit of coal mining – lignite, which has been used over the years.
Every article, the Telegraph push the “Putin’s Invasion” line, just like the BBC.
Interesting to see if this policy pushes AfD into overall control of a State.
The 2011 Fukushima “disaster” was not caused by the nuclear reactor but by poor site selection and inadequate protection from an unusual but known risk of tsunami following geological movements. Japan sits on an earthquake zone so ought to have been more aware.
Look at coal mining accidents and you will see a litany of deaths every year in an industry which is known, well understood technology. Accidents cannot be avoided but stupid political decisions can be.
Farming is dangerous – what would the liberals do? Stop growing food? The real reason Germany abandoned nuclear power was a sop to the Green Party and in pursuance of more dependence on wind and solar. These are not a viable source of energy.
If NordStream2 never went into operation how did its destruction cause a loss of gas supply.
The Fukushima incident was caused by water flooding electric pumps which circulated reactor coolant, short-circuiting them. The safety system worked perfectly and the reactor shut down.
Merkel ordered the shutting of Germany’s nuclear after the Fukushima tsunami disaster. Perhaps her sdvisers forgot to tell her there are no tsunamis in Germany?
Except those of utter stupidity from the Green elements in government!