How can complex authorisation procedures for wind and solar parks, large-scale storage facilities and hydrogen projects be accelerated? Discussion partners from the industry, authorities and associations discussed this at the end of February at the Oldenburg Technology and Start-up Centre. The "Energy Transition & Approval Practice" dialogue forum marks the end of the pilot phase of a new further education course run by the C3L - Center for Lifelong Learning at the University of Oldenburg. In the "Approval practice for the energy transition" programme funded by the Metropolitan Region Northwest and the City of Oldenburg, 17 participants from administration and the energy industry have learned how to carry out procedures more efficiently.
At the dialogue forum, their findings will be discussed with other experts, namely Dr Jan Christoph Weise, Head of the Renewable Energies Service Centre of the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment, Nicola Illing, Managing Director of the Northwest Metropolitan Region, Roland Hentschel, Chairman of the Oldenburg Energy Cluster, Matthias Wenholt, First District Councillor of the Wesermarsch district, Dr Sebastian Rohe from Alterric Deutschland GmbH and Christoph Brand, specialist lawyer for administrative law and for construction and architectural law. In his opening speech, the lawyer will address the current challenges in authorisation practice.
"Due to legal changes, approval practice for renewable energy plants is an extremely dynamic area," explains Prof. Dr Bernd Siebenhüner, Academic Director of the C3L programme. "This is why intensive further education is required for specialists in order to organise procedures efficiently and quickly. Well-qualified staff also make it possible to achieve broad support for projects." "As a metropolitan region, our central goal is to drive forward the energy transformation. However, this can only succeed if the bureaucratic processes in the background are also streamlined. That's why we support the C3L's training programme, as it brings together the people who are to implement these major projects, in addition to the classic knowledge transfer. In this way, important networks are created between the energy industry and administration in order to support the energy transition in the long term," emphasises Nicola Illing, Managing Director of the Northwest Metropolitan Region.
Over the course of six months, the participants deepened their knowledge online and on site during the further education programme in order to be able to implement approval procedures quickly. The second round is expected to start in April.