Over 50 wind turbines could be built in the Plzeň Region, government approves six zones

More than 50 large wind turbines could be built in the Plzeň Region under acceleration areas approved by the government, through a so-called fast-track procedure under which they would receive permits within a year. The region has six areas – two each in southern Plzeň, the Plzeň-North district and the Rokycany district. There were seven in April, but Únětice in southern Plzeň was removed and two zones were slightly reduced. The approved areas, where construction is intended to be simpler, cover around 27 square kilometres in the region. With turbine spacing of 700 to 800 metres, as envisaged in the explanatory reports, this would equate to around 54 towers about 250 metres high, with a capacity of around five megawatts each. Martin Plíhal, head of the regional environment department, told ČTK today.

The acceleration areas have been on the official noticeboard of the Czech Government Office resolution since 10 August. "It is a public notice announcing amendment No. 2 to the spatial development plan and related spatial measures. There is a 15-day period for service, after which it is deemed delivered and takes effect," Plíhal said. At the end of July, the government approved the Střížovice and Řenče acceleration zones in southern Plzeň. Two more are in the Plzeň-North district – Zahrádka and Košetice near Líšťany – and two in the Rokycany district – Vrabčiny near Mlečice and Bílá Skála near Terešov.

Originally, the region had nine areas proposed by the Ministry for Regional Development in a framework document, which it had assessed for environmental and sustainable-development impacts. The assessor recommended removing two areas, leaving seven locations in the proposal published in April.

"Based on comments from the relevant authorities and the public, one of them (Únětice, with an area of 2.6 km2 and potential capacity of 24 MW) was then removed altogether and two were reduced – the Rokycany one only cosmetically, while the Střížovice one was somewhat reduced in its northern part, where it could conflict with the visual setting of Radyně Castle," Plíhal said.

Six acceleration areas of national importance, covering around 27 km2, remain in the region. According to the ministry's calculation, this represents around 270 megawatts of capacity, or approximately 54 wind turbines with a capacity of around five megawatts each.

According to Plíhal, these are the assumed capacities of the sites, whose explanatory reports estimate a distance of 700 to 800 metres between towers. "But that is greatly underestimated, because we know that wind turbines can be built, where suitable, as little as 400 to 300 metres apart," he said.

There could therefore be more towers in the zones, as no minimum spacing limiting their numbers has been approved. The explanatory report for Řenče states that a suitable minimum distance between towers is 750 metres, corresponding to roughly five times the rotor diameter of a large wind turbine.

The cabinet approved the acceleration areas on 27 July, and they are due to open from September. "If someone comes forward and meets the conditions for the area, they should be guaranteed a building permit within a year. So theoretically, their capacities could be filled within a year," Plíhal said.

There are currently three wind turbines operating in the Plzeň Region.