Complete SuedLink route now awaiting planning approval

• TransnetBW submits application to open planning approval proceedings between the district borders of Hanover – Hildesheim and Northeim (Lower Saxony)
• Applications include proposal for possible route corridor as well as alternatives
• TransnetBW continues dialogue with the public under COVID conditions

Transmission system operator TransnetBW has submitted an application to start planning approval proceedings for the remaining section of the SuedLink wind power line at the border between the districts of Hanover and Hildesheim as well as Einbeck (Northeim district) to the German Federal Network Agency. The authority had set out the 1,000-metre-wide route corridor for this SuedLink section at the end of March.

“From today, all SuedLink sections are awaiting planning approval and we are continuing to drive one of the key projects of the energy transmission forward,” explained TransnetBW CEO Dr Werner Götz. “As usual, we will hold a transparent dialogue with the public during the planning stages, even with COVID restrictions in place – digital for now, but hopefully soon in person again, all around the Leine Valley,” Götz added.

TransnetBW has proposed a route corridor as well as possible alternatives from the district border between Hannover and Hildesheim near Elze along the Leine river to Einbeck-Strodthagen. Over the next weeks and months, subsurface investigations, archaeological surveys, mappings and tests for explosives from the war will be carried out along the future route corridor.

In a next step, the Federal Network Agency will formally invite the public to participate in the planning process pursuant to the Planning Assurance Act (Planungssicherstellungsgesetz, PlanSiG). Public interest groups, environmental organisations and state authorities as well as interested citizens can make submissions in writing, by post or via the Federal Network Agency’s website.

Citizens can also request a printed information pack via the project website https://www.transnetbw.de/suedlink, by e-mail to suedlink@transnetbw.de or by phone: 0800 380 470-1. Application documents, maps and notes can be accessed via 
https://www.transnetbw.de/de/netzentwicklung/projekte/suedlink/planung-und-genehmigung.

About SuedLink
As a direct current underground cable link, SuedLink will connect the wind-rich regions of Northern Germany with Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in the south. The project is being implemented by transmission system operators TenneT and TransnetBW. The two strands are to commence in Wilster and Brunsbüttel respectively; the end points are the Bergrheinfeld and Großgartach grid nodes. Both projects will be mostly planned and constructed in parallel. Applications for planning permission for SuedLink have been submitted in sections.

About the approval procedure
After a 1,000-metre-wide route corridor was set out in a federal sectoral plan, planning approval proceedings can commence. Within this corridor, the route of the underground line is mapped, exact to each individual parcel of land it will run through. This decision is made in several subsequent steps, as set out in sections 19 to 24 of the German Grid Expansion Acceleration Act (NABEG). In this way, planning for the SuedLink underground line route corridor is becoming increasingly more concrete and more detailed as the procedure progresses.

Citizens as well as organisations have several options to formally participate in the process after the application for planning approval has been submitted. First, they can comment on the application pursuant to section 19 NABEG during the application hearing or, alternatively, in writing pursuant to PlanSiG. At a later time, they can make written submissions concerning the plans for the final route corridor to the Federal Network Agency pursuant to section 21 NABEG. They can then present these submissions at a hearing. At the end of the planning approval procedure, a decision will be made on the final and exact route of the underground line.