BSW on climate and energy

The BSW rejects a blanket permission for wind turbines in forests. Local governments and regions, together with forest owners and businesses, should decide for themselves whether and where wind power is built, since in the program's view they know local needs best.

The BSW does not want wind turbines allowed in all forests. Towns should decide for themselves. They know best what is needed locally. Forest owners and companies should have a say too.

The program wants local governments to decide on sites for wind power. For wind energy in forests, regions should decide together with forest owners, local governments and businesses. The BSW describes its energy policy as "reason instead of ideology" and favors generating power and heat close to where it is used, with a range of technologies.

The BSW wants to cut energy costs in Thuringia, which it considers too high compared with other states, partly by equalizing grid fees across states. Small and mid-sized businesses struggling with energy costs should get targeted support, and citizens should share in the profits from power generation.

The BSW wants cheaper energy in Thuringia. Grid fees should be the same in all states. Small companies should get money to make their own power. Citizens should share in profits from green power. Farmers should get help making solar and biogas power.

Small and mid-sized businesses under threat would receive investment aid for generating their own power and for energy efficiency, plus a long-term special program for on-site power for small firms and crafts businesses. Another special program would support energy production in agriculture, for example from bioenergy and solar; agrivoltaics (solar panels over farmland) should get priority. The BSW wants public funding and citizen participation in renewable energy so that cheap green power reaches consumers. Neighborhood energy concepts and bioenergy villages with heat storage should also be funded. Energy agencies, the Thüringer Aufbaubank and the energy companies TEAG and TEN should be supported.

The BSW wants to achieve climate and environmental protection mainly through technology-neutral innovations that can be implemented quickly, and to make Thuringia a leader in storage technologies for renewable energy. In the program's view, rash measures endanger the economy and public support for climate action; it rejects red tape imposed in the name of climate protection.

The BSW wants to protect the climate with new technology. No technology should be ruled out. Thuringia should develop good storage for green power. The BSW rejects many climate rules. Climate protection should not make life more expensive.

The program holds that renewables alone cannot yet secure Germany's energy supply. It wants to promote key technologies for a climate-neutral economy, as well as flood protection, a sustainable energy supply and agricultural research to adapt farming to climate change. Storage technologies are meant to strengthen supply security and the state as a business location. Instead of what the program sees as excessive red tape, the BSW calls for strategies to adapt to the effects of climate change.