Applying for a permit under immission control law for the construction and operation of systems

In Lower Saxony, responsibility lies with the state trade supervisory offices, the Hanover region, the districts, independent cities or large independent cities.

The permit must be granted if it is ensured that the obligations arising from the Federal Immission Control Act (BImSchG) and its legal ordinances are fulfilled and that other public law regulations and occupational health and safety concerns do not conflict with the construction and operation of the plant.

The ELiA electronic immission control application program is available for permit applications; the required documents can be found in the set of forms stored there. Consultation with the responsible licensing authority before submitting the application is recommended.

Please refer to the guidelines for applicants.

• ELiA application program - Niedersächsische Gewerbeaufsicht

The fees for licensing procedures under the Federal Immission Control Act are calculated in accordance with Nos. 44.1.1 to 44.1.5 of Annex 1 to Section 1 (1) of the Ordinance on Fees and Expenses for Official Acts and Services (General Fee Schedule - AllGO).

The fees depend, among other things, on the installation costs of the system and are determined in the course of the procedure

• Ordinance on fees and expenses for official acts and services (General Schedule of Fees - AllGO-)

The approval procedure requires a written application, which must be accompanied by the drawings, explanations and other documents required to check the approval requirements. If the application is complete, it must be published together with the documents and then displayed for one month.

In simplified approval procedures or if public participation is waived, there is no public display and no discussion meeting takes place. At the latest at the same time as the public announcement of the project, the approval authority requests the authorities to be involved to submit their comments on the approval requirements within one month. If there are objections, these can be discussed with you and those who have raised the objections at a public meeting.

Once the licensing authority has determined all the circumstances that are relevant to the granting of a license, a decision on the application must be made - generally within 7 months of the license application being complete, or within 3 months in the simplified procedure. The approval notice must be justified in writing and will be sent to you and the persons who have raised objections. The notification of the approval notice to objectors can be replaced by a public announcement.

You must apply to the competent authority before installing and operating the system.

A decision on the application for approval must be made within seven months of receipt of the complete application, or within three months in the case of simplified procedures. The competent authority may extend the deadline by three months in each case if this is necessary due to the difficulty of the examination or for reasons attributable to the applicant.

The ELiA application program can be downloaded free of charge from the website of the Trade Supervisory Authority.

• ELiA application program - Niedersächsische Gewerbeaufsicht

• § Section 4 of the Act on Protection against Harmful Environmental Impacts from Air Pollution, Noise, Vibrations and Similar Processes (Federal Immission Control Act - BImSchG)