Lüssow-Schmatzin wind project

The Lüssow-Schmatzin wind project is located in the municipalities of Gützkow and Schmatzin. Most of it is located on land belonging to the town of Gützkow (district of Vorpommern-Greifswald) south of the village of Ranzin, north of Lüssow and is crossed by the municipal road between Ranzin and Lüssow.

The project area is suitable for the erection of wind turbines according to the standard state criteria of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and is therefore designated as a suitability area in the draft for the partial update of the regional spatial development program of Vorpommern with the area number 17/2015. There are further reasons in favor of the area. These include

Area no. 17/2015 has a total size of approx. 56 ha. The construction and operation of eight wind turbines is currently planned here.

An application for approval in accordance with Section 4 BImSchG is to be submitted for the project in the fourth quarter of 2019.

As part of the approval process, all documents will be put on public display to give residents, associations and authorities the opportunity to find out more about the plans and submit comments.

The construction and operation of eight General Electric GE 5.3-158 wind turbines is currently planned for the Lüssow-Schmatzin wind project.

This type of wind turbine has a rotor diameter of 158 m and thus spans the area of 2.5 soccer pitches. The carbon rotor blades are in two parts and therefore easier to transport, which means that less road construction is required and facilitates installation on site.

With a rated output of 4.8 to 5.3 megawatts (MW), the GE 5.3-158 is one of the highest-yielding turbines for locations with wind conditions away from the direct coastline. The energy yield is twice as high as that of previous models. A single wind turbine can supply up to 5,000 households or 11,000 electric cars with clean electricity and save around 9,500 tons of CO2 per year.

Forms of participation

Participation takes many forms. In addition to informal participation within the planning process, it is of course also about economic participation. In other words, ensuring that residents and communities in the vicinity of wind farms benefit appropriately from local wind power generation. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the economic participation of citizens and municipalities has even been regulated by law since 2016.

Citizen and community participation act

The M-V Citizen and Community Participation Act obliges project developers to offer wind farm residents - including residents and municipalities within a five-kilometre radius - shares of at least 20 percent in new wind farms. Each share may cost a maximum of 500 euros.

Alternatively, a combination of an annual equalization levy for municipalities and a savings product for residents can also be offered. This reduces the risk for municipalities and residents. When acquiring shares in the wind farm company, both profits and losses from a project must be borne as part of the respective investment. The equalization levy for municipalities is fixed and is calculated on the basis of the profit expected from a 10% stake in the company. It is paid out annually and must be earmarked for infrastructure and energy-saving measures. In the case of the savings product for citizens, the minimum interest rate is also calculated on the basis of the wind farm yield.

Further information on the law is available from the State Energy and Climate Protection Agency M-V:

www.leka-mv.de/Beteiligung/