It's an ongoing joke that a mandate to place wind farms 2km from populated areas left no space at for wind farms in that state.

It's not actually sparsely populated at all.

Germany is about 15% smaller than California, but with more than twice the population. Not exactly what I'd call "sparsely populated".

As a German who loves hiking, let me tell you that you can not go more than 5kms without hitting a village, town or highway anywhere in this country. I am truly envious of having wilderness around like in the US or northern Scandinavia.