At the invi­ta­tion of the West­fa­len­WIND Group, Tho­mas Kut­schaty, the SPD state chair­man and par­lia­men­tary group lea­der in the state par­lia­ment, visi­ted the energy town of Lich­tenau (Pader­born dis­trict) to find out about the situa­tion and pro­s­pects for wind energy. The muni­ci­pa­lity is regarded throug­hout the state as a prime exam­ple of how wind power expan­sion can be imple­men­ted with a high level of accep­tance in the muni­ci­pa­lity, local poli­tics and citizens.

The par­ti­ci­pants first got to talk to Tho­mas Kut­schaty about the Lich­tenau suc­cess story in a rela­xed atmo­sphere at the trai­ning centre of Ener­con, Germany’s lar­gest manu­fac­tu­rer of wind tur­bi­nes. Stef­fen Lack­mann, co-part­ner of West­fa­len­WIND and mem­ber of the board of the NRW Rene­wa­ble Energy Asso­cia­tion (LEE NRW), explai­ned how the accep­tance of the popu­la­tion could be won: “It worked because we took the local peo­ple along tog­e­ther with the poli­ti­ci­ans. Many are directly invol­ved in the wind tur­bi­nes, the vol­un­t­ary work bene­fits from an energy foun­da­tion and the citi­zens have bene­fi­ted from a sub­si­di­sed elec­tri­city tariff for years.” Mayor Ute Dül­fer, who atten­ded the mee­ting with her pre­de­ces­sor Josef Hart­mann, added: “We are incre­di­bly happy to have the wind tur­bi­nes. They account for 30 per cent of our trade tax reve­nue.” This is how the form­erly struc­tu­rally weak town has become the muni­ci­pa­lity with the hig­hest per capita income in the Pader­born district.