Czech Vysočina will not actively oppose wind turbines where municipalities and residents want them

The Vysočina Region will not actively oppose the construction of wind power plants if local governments and residents in the microregion want them. Regional Governor Martin Kukla (ANO) said this at today’s regional council meeting in response to a question about the regional leadership’s stance on wind turbines. He also said he was not entirely in favour of wind power plants himself and mainly supported the planned expansion of the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant with new units.

A number of investors have recently shown interest in the Vysočina Region as a location for wind turbines. Some have already signed cooperation agreements with municipalities, while elsewhere local referendums have halted the plans. Opposition councillor Jan Matějů (KDU-ČSL) asked about the regional council’s approach to building wind power plants in Vysočina. “This is a current issue and is attracting public interest,” he said.

“As for wind power plants, you surely know that the Vysočina Region does not make the decisions; at most, it issues recommendations,” Kukla said.

He said that mayors who want wind turbines and those who oppose them both come to see him. He had read that there could be as many as 600 wind turbines in the region. “Of course, I personally don’t want that as regional governor. But the Vysočina Region will certainly not prevent certain activities and construction projects,” he said.

Councillor Matějů also wanted to know why the regional council had not taken an unequivocally negative position on plans to build three wind turbines near Sazomín in the Žďár nad Sázavou District. “You might object that procedural rules did not allow it, but I’m asking why it didn’t do so, for example, through an accompanying resolution,” he said. He noted that the site is near the Žďárské vrchy Protected Landscape Area and the Bohdalovsko Nature Park. “The UNESCO site at Zelená hora is relatively close, and there is a bird nesting site there. Ultimately, the project also conflicts with the Vysočina Region’s spatial development principles and its landscape character protection strategy,” Matějů said. He added that six of the eight municipalities around Sazomín had expressed opposition to the wind turbines.

The regional environmental department recently decided that the plans by Brno-based S&M Develop to build wind turbines near Sazomín would undergo a detailed assessment by the authorities, as a significant impact on the surrounding area could not be ruled out. The regional council had also requested this. “We believe that the assessment will give us a clear answer,” Kukla said today.

On the Czech wind map, Vysočina is among the areas with the greatest potential, but the region did not support wind turbines in previous years because of their impact on the landscape. There are currently seven wind power plants in Vysočina; the most recent ones were built in 2009.

In a local referendum two years ago, residents of Sazomín supported wind turbines. By contrast, voters rejected their construction in referendums last year in Počátky in the Pelhřimov District, Jamné in the Jihlava District and Dalečín in the Žďár nad Sázavou District. The town council in Žirovnice in the Pelhřimov District is in talks with several investors, but no decision has yet been made, Mayor Radek Vopravil (for STAN) told the Czech News Agency (ČTK) in response to a question. Last week, residents of Smrčná in the Jihlava District were surveyed about wind turbines; the municipality has yet to assess the results.