The Westmecklenburg Regional Planning Association is suddenly in a hurry and is unsettling affected project developers. This refers to the partial update of the „Energy“ chapter of the Westmecklenburg Regional Spatial Development Programme (RREP WM), which focuses on controlling the expansion of wind energy by designating wind energy areas. The planning association adopted the partial update on 1 October 2025. Just two months later - on 4 December 2025 - it was determined that the partial area targets had already been achieved. The first area contribution values in accordance with the WindBG would not have been reached until 31 December 2027.

This rapid administrative action not only raises procedural issues, but also confronts project developers with considerable problems: Projects that were started under the old legal and planning situation are suddenly no longer in line with regional planning. For those affected, the question now arises as to how they should deal with this new planning situation. If they reject or withdraw applications, they face the threat of sometimes enormous fees.

As the failure of the projects is due to surprising changes in spatial planning and not to planning errors on the part of the project developers, those affected should have it checked whether claims for damages or other legal action can be considered. On the one hand, the partial update should be scrutinised and it should be checked whether all procedural steps could be properly adhered to in view of the enormous speed. On the other hand, the question should be investigated as to whether a decision should not have been made on some applications for approval a long time ago anyway and whether the approval authority could therefore be accused of inactivity. This would entail considerable liability consequences for the licensing authorities and the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

According to the legal requirements in the Federal Immission Control Act, a decision on the application for authorisation for the construction and operation of wind turbines should be made within a period of three or seven months. However, according to current figures from the Wind and Solar Agency, an authorisation procedure in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern takes an average of 50.7 months. „The years of delay on the part of the approval authorities on the one hand and the excessive speed of planning on the part of regional planning on the other raise considerable questions here overall,“ says lawyer Natalie Carstens.