The experts evaluated the figures from the market master data register and found that between January and September 2019, only 148 wind turbines were connected to the grid. New plant output in 2019 was 82% below the average for the comparable periods between 2014 and 2018. According to a report published by heise.de , the main reasons for this are long approval procedures and a large number of lawsuits. At the beginning of September, the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier (CDU) had announced that measures would be drawn up to give the expansion a breath of fresh air.

Hopefully it is not already too late. The German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) complained at the end of August that companies were being “directly affected by this snail’s pace”, not only in the wind turbine industry, but in all other businesses too, due to the phase-out of nuclear energy and coal. This came not long after the Welt had reported “alarming figures”: According to the German federal government, the German wind power industry had cut a total of 26,000 jobs in 2017.