“The major obstacle does not lie in procedural law”

The law steers the way – including for renewable energies. The legal provisions – from the revised EU Renewable Energy Directive to planning and approval law at federal and regional-state level – are among the factors determining the pace of their expansion. We spoke with Maria Deutinger about the legal framework for the renewables expansion, and about barriers and opportunities for its acceleration. An expert in approval law at Stiftung Umweltenergierecht (Foundation for Environmental Energy Law), she also talks about the often overlooked acceleration potential afforded by substantive law.

Maria Deutinger, which legal provisions have done most to advance renewables? 

The legal frameworks are diverse and complex. There are regulations at all levels – from the EU to the municipalities. A key instrument is the European Renewable Energy Directive, or RED for short. It was revised extensively in 2023 in order to further accelerate the expansion. RED III now sets a target of at least 42.5 per cent renewable energy in final energy consumption by 2030 while aiming for 45 per cent.

What was the role of the Council Regulation on an emergency intervention to address high energy prices, which expired at the end of June 2025?

A very important one. It was a response to the Ukraine war and was intended to greatly accelerate the deployment of renewable energies, with a focus on security of supply. For that, there were numerous instruments that did much to streamline permit-granting processes, such as exemptions from assessment requirements and the modification of species protection assessments. For example, it was no longer possible to refuse permission for a wind power plant on species conservation grounds. This is partly because it could be argued that renewables expansion plays a crucial role in fighting climate change and therefore also, in the long term, in protecting the environment. This has made a major contribution to the acceleration of renewables deployment, especially in Germany.

RED III is intended to embed these simplifications for the long term, with a seamless transition planned. However, the transposition of RED III into national law has not yet been fully completed by most of the member states, which is why infringement proceedings have now been launched against 26 of them. 

Why has RED III not yet been transposed into national law in Germany?

We were firmly on track, but after the early exit of the previous government – the traffic-light coalition – the discontinuity principle came into play. This means that all legislative proposals that had not yet been passed by the Bundestag had to be restarted. We are now seeing some movement here. The rules on onshore wind power actually came into force in August 2025 – with provisions almost identical to those developed by the previous government. 

Will the delays in transposing RED III put the brakes on renewables?

From my perspective, this will play a less significant role than initially feared. The simplifications under the emergency regulation apply to all plants for which applications were submitted by the end of June 2025. As many people were aware of this regulatory gap, everyone who was able to submitted an application prior to this. And the transposition of RED III came around, or rather will come around, more quickly than expected. The major obstacle lies elsewhere, in my view. 

Where exactly?

There are numerous regulations that can impede the construction of renewable energy plants, such as the legislation on species conservation, aviation or heritage protection. There is considerable potential for acceleration here, because many of the requirements of these laws are formulated in very vague terms. Take aviation, for example: the legal position is that there must be no risks to safety. But it does not provide a more precise definition of when this risk threshold is exceeded. This lack of legal clarity makes it difficult for the authorities and applicants to apply the law. Uncertainties can mean that potentially more stringent standards are applied in order to ensure that decisions are legally secure. This makes procedures unnecessarily complex and slows them down.

What could be done to prevent this?

The legislator must clarify exactly what the authorities are required to check. Work is already under way here. For example, in species conservation law, there is already a regulation on the risk of death and injury among breeding bird species at risk of collision around wind energy plants, which has done much to advance the process of standardisation. But this only applies to a very small segment of species conservation law. There is much more work to do here – as well as a great deal of potential.

Thank you for talking to eco@work.
The interviewer was Christiane Weihe.

Talking to eco@work: Maria Deutinger, a lawyer at the Stiftung Umweltenergierecht (Foundation for Environmental Energy Law).