IKAST-BRANDE: At a city council meeting on Monday evening, a majority decided to put the processing of renewable energy projects on hold. Mayor Ib Laurtisen (V) calls it a difficult but necessary decision.
- These are some of the most difficult cases to deal with as a city council politician. It is not good city council work when we end up in a situation where it depends on a case by case whether a city council member resigns or not, the mayor tells DK Nyt.
Ib Lauritsen admits that there are factors at play – including a municipal election in the autumn – but the mayor primarily points to the Danish Social Appeals Board's interference in the municipality's processing of renewable energy applications and projects.
Like a number of other municipalities, Ikast-Brande has had a number of local political requests for interested candidates. In the municipality, this means, among other things, that there has been a local demand for increased compensation for homeowners within 5-6 times the height of the turbines.
The Tønder model is perhaps the best known, with, among other things, demands for voluntary payments to a local municipal fund and a requirement that 40 percent of projects must be offered for local co-ownership at cost price.
In a decision from June last year, the Danish Appeals Board assessed that this practice was illegal and recommended that a guide be prepared for what demands and wishes the municipalities may have for the installers.
And this is now causing Ikast-Brande to put their own projects on hold.
- Back in 2019, we unanimously adopted some guidelines for setting up renewable energy plants in the municipality, where we also set a direction for where we want to go and how we will get there. But with this tightening of the Danish Appeals Board, part of the basis of the agreement we have entered into in the city council disappears, says Ib Lauritsen.
- That is why we believe that a break is necessary until we know more about the assumptions we have to work from.
May end up as a central decision
Ib Lauritsen is annoyed by the Danish Appeals Board's decision, which helps to remove the municipalities' room for manoeuvre in the area.
- Our room for manoeuvre must of course be within a reasonable margin, but if you completely remove local influence, you might as well make it a state task to designate where the energy plants should be located, he says.
With the designation of the state energy parks, the state has already taken a more active role in the work of setting up renewable energy parks in the municipalities, but so far the state has benefited from the municipalities taking care of the difficult part of the task.
- It is difficult to involve citizens sufficiently without giving them veto power over the projects. It is therefore a very fine balance, and that is also why we want it to be a united city council that can stand behind our decision, says Ib Lauritsen.
If the Danish Social Appeals Board stands by its decision, Ib Lauritsen also believes that it will only become even more difficult for the municipalities to give the green light to new renewable energy projects.
Therefore, if the mayor were to keep his post until KV25, he will encourage the new city council to have a new discussion about the direction of the municipality.
- When the conditions change, we have to sit down together in the new city council term and ask each other, is this what we want?
- It is only fair that we give both the board and our citizens a clear answer as to whether we can continue to support future renewable energy projects. It must not depend on a single mandate in the city council, but we must find agreement in the city council on what we do. It is not fair to our citizens if they have to live in uncertainty about which direction we want to go, says Ib Lauritsen.
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