The new coalition that came to power in North Rhine-Westphalia state (Nordrhein Westphalen) announced it plans to support the lignite sector and to progressively reduce subsidies for new renewable energy facilities.
It agreed on a new energy policy and plans to maintain an energy mix in which lignite, hard coal, heat generation and gas-fired power would bridge the gap for a certain time until renewable energies and storage facilities can deliver significant amount of supplies. This new approach aims to implement tougher permit requirements for new onshore wind farms and to push for the curbing of renewable energies subsidies under the nationwide renewable energy act (EEG, Erneuerbare Energien Gesetz). To achieve this aim, the new government plans to decrease feed-in-tariffs and to expose the sector to more competition. It also announced its wish to introduce a minimum distance of 1.5km between the new wind parks projects and residential areas.
North Rhine-Westphalia is the largest German lignite-producing state with about 10 GW of lignite-fired power generation capacity, which is about 50% of the domestic production.
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