Exhibit 5 Long permitting lead times delay the build-out of renewable and transmission projects in Europe.
Typical duration between project start and permit granted ¹
Germany
France
Italy
Spain
Onshore wind
Solar
Transmission lines ²
13 years
13 years
13 years
10 years
10 years
10 years
5 years
5 years
5 years
0 years
0 years
0 years
1 Considers only large new-built transmission line projects. ² Environmental-impact assessment. Source: European Wind Energy Association; Fachagentur Windenergie an Land; press searches
McKinsey & Company
Potential challenges The expansion of renewables such as wind and solar power could face challenges in six areas: 1. Timely allocation. Meeting the European Union’s RES build-out targets could require a reconsideration of spatial-planning processes to ensure the timely availability of sufficient land to develop renewables. In Germany, for example, the amount of available land in areas currently designated for onshore renewables would allow the development of only about an additional 5 to 8 GW of onshore wind.
2. Distance regulation and other constraints. Today, a significant share of the land that could be used for RES deployment is either not suitable technically or subject to regulatory restrictions. 22 Rules setting a minimum distance to infrastructure such as settlements, airports, water, and railways, for example, exclude 52 percent of the available land in Germany. Although around 9 percent of the country’s land is available for onshore wind build-outs, 50 to 80 percent of these areas near substations would be needed to generate 104 GW of onshore wind additions by 2040.
22 Suitable land excludes urban areas, forests, bodies of water, airports, very low-capacity zones, high-slope areas, military zones, and protected land (such as biodiversity areas). There are also regulatory constraints on distance to settlement for onshore wind, and Italy bans solar PV on cropland.
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