The construction of wind turbines outside of priority areas is not fundamentally ruled out, according to a ruling by the Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court (OVG), which rejected the urgent application by a local authority against the immission control approval of two wind turbines (Ref.: 7 S 3/24 dated 2 April 2025). The municipality had refused to give its consent to the project and referred, among other things, to a regional plan with priority areas for wind energy use that was currently being drawn up. It also had concerns about nature conservation and species protection as well as possible noise pollution.

In its decision, the court found that the requirements for refusing the municipal consent were not met. In particular, the court did not see any legally relevant obstacles due to the regional plan currently being drawn up. Although the regional plan provides for the designation of priority areas for wind energy utilisation, in the opinion of the court it does not have an exclusionary effect, meaning that wind energy plants outside of these areas are not fundamentally excluded. The court also did not consider the preliminary effect of the regional plan to be sufficient to influence ongoing approval procedures or to prevent the specific project.

In addition, nature conservation and immission control issues were examined and deemed insufficient to prevent the project. The court thus also confirmed the decision of the approval authority to replace the refused municipal consent.