Modification of an installation requiring approval under the Federal Immission Control Act (BImSchG) Approval as part of the repowering of an installation for the generation of electricity from renewable energies

If you intend to make significant changes to an installation that requires a permit and generates electricity from renewable energy sources, you must apply for a permit from the competent authority.

Do you operate an installation that requires approval under immission control legislation, for which you already have approval under immission control legislation, and are you planning to carry out repowering measures on this installation?

Repowering measures serve to modernize an installation for the purpose of generating electricity from renewable energies.

This repowering measure can have adverse effects in relation to the current state of the installation. If these are significant for the approval requirements of the installation requiring approval, a modification permit is required.

For this reason, any significant changes to installations requiring approval must be reviewed by the immission control authority. To do this, you must submit an application for a modification permit and submit all the documents required for the assessment. The application can be made in writing or electronically.

The environmental department of the regional council responsible for the plant location is responsible.

Forms and instructions can be found at:

Approval for change shall be granted if:

• it is ensured that the obligations arising from the requirements of the Federal Immission Control Act and the Federal Immission Control Ordinance are fulfilled and
• other public law regulations and occupational health and safety concerns do not conflict with the construction and operation of the plant.

A permit for wind turbines in the context of repowering may also not be refused if, after the modernization, not all immission guideline values of the technical instructions for protection against noise are complied with, but

• the immission contribution of the wind turbine after modernization is lower than the immission contribution of the wind turbines replaced by it, and
• the wind turbine is state-of-the-art.

Action before the administrative court or administrative court of justice

The approval procedure requires a written or electronic application, which must be accompanied by the drawings, explanations and other documents required to check the approval requirements.

If the application is complete, it may have to be made public together with the documents and then displayed for one month. At the latest at the same time as the public announcement of the project, the approval authority also requests the authorities to be involved to submit their comments on the approval requirements within one month.

If there are objections, these will be discussed with you and those who have raised the objections in a meeting. Once the licensing authority has determined all the circumstances that are relevant to the granting of a license, a decision must be made on the application.

The approval decision must be substantiated in writing and will be served to you and the persons who have raised objections. The notification of the approval notice to objectors can be replaced by a public announcement.

You must apply to the competent authority for approval of the system before commencing the modification.

Fee from 2.500,00 EUR to 1.800.000,00 EUR