SVENDBORG: In Svendborg, the debate about citizen involvement in green energy projects is raging after several citizens experience that they are being ignored. A project with solar panels in Gudbjerg and Lakkendrup has particularly caused frustration, and the question of how citizen involvement should take place is dividing local politicians, writes TV2 Fyn.
In 2021, four local politicians from Svendborg participated in the TV 2 Fyn program Løst eller KVast, where they had to find common solutions to municipal problems in 20 minutes. In the program, the parties agreed that citizens should be involved earlier in the decision-making process, but four years later there is still disagreement about how this should be done in practice.
- The Liberal Party believes that if you start early, citizens will automatically follow. They don't. We have seen examples where people are involved from the beginning, but where the resistance is still massive, says the Social Democrats' Pia Dam, who instead points out that citizens must be offered concrete benefits such as cooperative opportunities or cheaper electricity, in order for the commitment to be real.
In Horsens, a majority has given citizens a veto right against wind turbines. More specifically, the municipality has demanded local support before investors can erect wind turbines. According to Mayor Peter Sørensen (S), support can be achieved, among other things, through a local vote or through local councils:
- Investors must understand that those who live in the open countryside get all the inconvenience, but rarely any gain. It can be solved elsewhere with one hundred percent support, and I am sure that it can also be done in Horsens, he said in connection with the decision to Horsens Folkeblad.
In Ringkøbing-Skjern, the Liberal Party's mayoral candidate Lone Andersen has also said that in future they will require "significant" local support to approve renewable energy projects - that a majority of the affected households in the area support it.
- If an application is made, there must be significant local support in the affected areas and provide added value both locally and in the municipality.
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