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Financial participation of affected municipalities in the planning, construction and operation of renewable energy systems Short paper with recommendations for municipal and citizen participation in wind turbines

This paper presents the proposals developed by the experts on the financial participation of municipalities and citizens in local onshore wind turbines (WEA). The two recommended municipal and citizen participation instruments were selected in the course of the project according to several criteria. A municipal participation instrument that is financed by the EEG solves the constitutional law problems that other proposed tax and levy instruments entail. A payment agreement under private law was therefore considered preferable in the context of our extensive assessment and will be further elaborated here with regard to a concrete implementation proposal. Discounted citizen electricity tariffs are presented as a direct citizen participation instrument. On the recommendation of the mediation committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat and against the background of the high approval ratings of the population for this instrument, discounted citizen electricity tariffs are recommended as a citizen participation instrument for implementation in addition to a municipal participation instrument - directly linked to the municipal participation. Both proposals lead to annual payments to the affected municipalities and citizens in the range of 20,000 to 30,000 euros per wind turbine. This enables the wind turbine operator to alternatively only make the payments to the municipality.