The comprehensive legal changes to planning, environmental and energy law in recent times, in particular the so-called 2 % area target for the nationwide expansion of wind energy, have led to a significant paradigm shift for the regional planning control of wind energy. Regional planning is particularly well suited to the responsible management of wind energy expansion. The application and interpretation of the Wind Energy Area Requirements Act and special building regulations pose major challenges for planning authorities. Planning practice will show whether the positive planning for the designation of wind energy areas, when weighed against the priority given to renewable energies and the suppression of nature and species protection, will prove to accelerate the expansion of wind energy, but will also prove to be sufficiently legally secure.