The Bundestag passed several important energy laws on 31 January 2025. The legislative amendments and adjustments relate to energy industry law, the Renewable Energy Sources Act, the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Act 2024, the Combined Heat and Power Act and the Federal Immission Control Act. For example, the electricity grid should be able to react more flexibly to surplus electricity in future. Among other things, the remuneration is also to be adjusted to create more incentives for electricity production that is geared towards the capacities of the grids. There are to be longer funding options for combined heat and power (CHP) plants and the tender volume for biogas is to be increased. The expansion of wind energy is also to be better controlled. In future, it will no longer be possible to secure areas via a preliminary decision that are no longer available for wind turbines in the long term. This change was initiated by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. In order to prevent the uncontrolled growth of wind turbines outside of certain planning zones, the state parliament had decided on a six-month moratorium on approvals for wind turbines outside of certain planning zones. “The retroactive amendment to the Federal Immission Control Act, which also applies to current applications without any transitional provisions, should be viewed rather critically,” says Rechtsanwalt Prof Dr Jan Thiele.