talk together about that topic. The first few, it's a bit strange that we talk about the application of wind energy in forests, because it's a big obstacle for the wind when the wind approaches the forest and the trees. And therefore, maybe it's not the best idea.

So we will have also an outlook on the energy yield of wind turbines in forests. Then we will talk about the German forest situation in special. And then the influence on wind energy in forests on nature. And then on the regulatory framework that we need to follow

when we apply wind power in forests. Then we talk about a typical land demand wind turbines require in forests. And then we have finally, the outlook on the development of wind energy

in German forests. Why are we looking for wind energy in forests? And the reason is that the best sites near to the coastlines or in hilly regions with high wind speeds more or less are already used. And therefore, we need to have a look for new sites that

can be applied. And in a densely populated country like Germany, we also need to have distances from villages from cities. And therefore, maybe forests is a good idea to look at. And why do we do that in the last years? That also has to do with the development

of the wind turbine sizes. That means we have more and more higher powers, nominal powers, and taller and taller wind turbine masts. And that allows us to apply wind power above

the tree top. And that is maybe a good idea to go for. But when we look for the energy yield that we can reach with wind turbines in forests, then definitely it has a negative impact that we have trees there. So we have 2.5 times higher turbulence intensity. And

that leads like in that publication we are citing here, it was investigated that there is a 17% lower annual yield that we achieve with a turbine that is located at the border

to a forest compared to a same wind turbine next by that has a free wind flow possibility. That also the error time is twice that of open landscape is maybe just the reason why

we only have two turbines compared. Hannah, we are living here in Germany in a very densely populated country, maybe one of the most densely populated countries worldwide. There is no wind here. Is it really worth talking about the application of wind in Germany? Yes, it

is. In Germany, we have 11.4 million hectares of forest. And this is about one third of the Germans total surface. There's also a definition of forest according to the German

Bundeswaldgesetz. According to this, a forest is each surface area with forest plants, also clear cut areas, forest glades, and forest tracks. On this slide, you can see information about the land tenure of the forest. About 50% of the forest in Germany is private property.

3.5% is state forest and belongs to the Bund. 29% is state forest and belongs to the Bundesländer. 19% is so-called public cooperation forest, which belongs, for example, to communities

or cities. And the rest, as already said, is private forest. And the forest is characterized by its closeness to nature. What is closeness to nature? In order to define it, a comparison

is carried out of the currently occurring tree species with those of the nature vegetation. And this is done under the current site conditions without the human influence. And the orientation

of nature is classified in five levels. So the first level is very close to nature. This is the case when at least 90% of the trees are potentially naturally occurring. Then close to nature is when 75-90% of the trees are naturally occurring. Conditionally close

to nature is when 50-75% of the trees are naturally occurring. Cultured means that 25-50% of the trees are naturally occurring. And culturally determined means when less than

25% of the trees are naturally occurring. And here in this graph, you can see the nature orientation of the tree species. So about 15% of the German forests are very close to nature. About 21% are close to nature. And about 40% are conditionally close to nature.

7% are cultured. And the rest is culturally determined, which is about 16%. That means we have really a significant part of our land available is forests here, also in Germany.

And nevertheless, there is resistance towards erecting wind turbines in forests. And therefore, we need to have a look on the influence of wind energy in forests on nature. Yes, of course, there is an influence on nature. First of all, an influence on birds. But the

first specific effects concerning migrant birds and raptors are not yet examined in detail. But first results show that in low mountain regions in Western Germany, they

show no significant influence on breeding pair density, except for the woodpeckers. But the data is still very limited. Then there is a potential impact on bats. But there we see that the situation on the

impact on bats is more or less the same, like in open land sites and in forests. And therefore, we can use the same shutdown algorithms, for example, that have been developed in a project Rainer Bat that we apply in the open areas, we also can apply into forests.

Then there's an influence on the wildcat. Here we have to say that during the construction phase, the disturbances at distances between 200 and 900 meters, because the wildcat is sensitive to disturbances. During operation, the wildcat is not directly infected. But

the wildcat needs retreat possibilities into calm zones in order to hide. And then there might be an influence on plants and biotopes. And mainly coniferous forests

of mean value is used for the application of wind turbines in forests. And after one to a few years after construction, the medium value levels could be achieved again. A certain proportion of the forest is always remaining sealed surfaces. And therefore, for example,

we can observe that in gravel areas is partly high species richness can be seen. And there are also effects on the soil. A removal and relocation of soil material for

the construction of the foundation takes place. And then there's a soil compaction by construction vehicles, and a permanent use of approximately 0.4 hectare per wind energy plant takes place. And one third of this surface is afterwards fully sealed.

And whenever we talk about different interests, someone to protect nature, other ones to in install wind parks, we need to have a regulatory framework in order how to deal with this problems.

And there, first of all, we have the so-called Bundeswaldgesetz and the nature protection laws of the federal states. And then we have influence on humans nature and landscape that has to be examined within the framework of emission control. And then we have the unavoidable

intervention that has to be compensated or replaced. And we have aspects on fire protection in the admission procedure for wind turbines that also need to be taken into account. When selecting the site, existing forward tracks for excess cabling and maintenance of the turbines should be used in order to keep the interference in the forest ecosystem

to a minimum. And in some Bundesländer there are conditions concerning surface categories that should not be used due to nature protection. For example, in some states, it is forbidden

to build wind energy plants in very close to nature forest. And according to paragraph 9 of this Bundeswaldgesetz, the forest law, permission is necessary to convert forest into other types of use. And as a rule, as a replacement for converted

areas, initial forestation must take place in a sustainable or a suitable area in a ratio of at least one to one. So every part of the forest that is destroyed needs to be rebuilt in a different place. Land has also a good side because we all know about the problems

of the forest with climate change. And when you replace the old parts of the forest with new trees, we can have a look that we look for trees species that are capable to cope much better with the climate change.

Further on, the land must be converted into another type of use, for example, by clearance if it is necessary and by usage of bare land, for example, caused by storms.

A part of the area must be kept free for the entire operating time of the plant. So it is a permanent forest conversion. And that, for example, is due to the foundation surfaces and also the crane installation and construction and maintenance surfaces.

And further area must be cleared only for the construction phase. And this is called the temporary forest conversion. And this surface will be reforested within two years after construction of the wind energy plant. And finally, we have the forest tracks construction for delivery of construction materials and

plant components that includes permanent and temporary forest conversions. And here in this graph, you can see the typical land requirement per wind energy plant. These

data were collected in different German states. And in total, you can see that approximately 0.47 hectare are permanently used per wind energy plant. And additionally, 0.4 hectare

are temporarily used when constructing a wind energy plant. Hannah, who the hell can imagine the size of a hectare? But that is a quite good imagine. It's almost two thirds of a soccer field that is needed to erect one wind turbine in a forest.

And what we have to add is that wind energy has the lowest land demand of all renewable energies. In this picture, you can see how a wind energy plant is constructed. And the surface area within the red areas is reforested after the construction phase.

Finally, we want to give an example of a wind energy park in the forest. This is the wind park Reinhaltswald, which is currently under construction. And in this forest, 20 wind

turbines are planned. It shall be constructed on partly areas with spruce monoculture. And the turbines are planned on areas affected by storm damage from the years 2018 and 2019.

On the two pictures below, you can see the areas where the wind energy plants shall be constructed. The permanently used land there is about 14 hectares. And that is just 0.08 percent of Reinhaltswald. And there of most of it, almost 9 to 10 hectares is for the wind turbines itself.

Another five hectares for the forest tracks and almost not significant is the space we need for the transformer stations. And in the picture, we see that small red dot. That is the land used in

comparison of the complete forest area here in green. And then we have another temporary use of land of another 17 hectares. But also that is just 0.097 percent of this forest. And that is in the same graph displayed by the other dots. And that we see it is almost neglectable what we

finally require as land in a forest. Yes, the Reinhaltswald is a very large forest. That's true. And in other forests that might be a bit different in relation. But it's always that it's a very small part really used for the wind turbines. In the wind park Reinhaltswald,

an area compensation is compulsory. That means that an alternative forestation surface has to be supplied. Additionally, a so-called Wald, a Holtungsabgabe has to be paid. And this has to be paid if alternative forestation is not possible. The amount depends on the damage grade

and the fee has to be used for the forest conservation. And additionally, the development of a suitable living space for the woodcock is necessary. So finally, we can note that it's only

a small part of forests that is needed when wind turbines are erected there. And in the internet, we find a lot of bad photo montages, like in the left picture here, where we see it's a very bad photo montage. There are even better photo montages, but showing a threat of wind turbines

in forests. Sometimes we see forests that had been destroyed by storms, claiming that people who want to erect wind turbines have done that. But the reality, we can see more on the right side. There we see, yes, sure, we can see those wind turbines, but I harmonize quite well with

the forest. And whenever you have done a hiking tour in such a forest, you even will not see those wind turbines, because there are just too many trees that you even can look at those wind turbines. Finally, we want to give some information about the development of wind energy in German forests.

So in the end of 2019, about 2000 wind turbines were installed in German forests. This is about 7% of all German turbines. And the electrical power was about 5400 megawatts,

which is about 10% of the installed power. 85% of the turbines in forests were constructed between 2010 and 2018. And they occupied about 953 hectares of forest. For comparison to understand

this number, in the past an area of this size was excavated about every 15 months in the course of lignite mining. Additionally, we have to say that the forest in Germany is growing. Between 2000 and 2018, there was an increase of about 1200 square kilometers.

This is an average yearly increase of forest about 6800 hectares. And when we compare this yearly increase of forest with the number with the surface that is occupied by wind energy plants,

we can see that the average yearly increase is much higher than this number. And we conclude this video with the development of wind energy in forests here in Germany. And then we see a strong increase of the application of wind turbines in forests until

the year 2016-2017. And then, but that is the same like in all types of wind parks, it decreases rapidly in the year 2018-19 and unfortunately also the year 2020. But when we have a look to the gray dots, then we see that the relation, the relative part of wind

turbines that have been erected in forests kept almost constant around 20 percent per year. So with that, we would like to finish and thank you very much for your attention.