By Julian Scola, Communications Director, EWEA

Global Wind Day continued into the weekend with the inauguration of the 10 turbine Leuze-en- Hainaut wind farm in Belgium. On a suitably windy afternoon thousands of local residents turned up to tour two of the ten 2.05MW turbines  which had been opened up for inspection.

The wind park was developed by Belgian electricity providers Electrabel, ELSA a company set up by an inter-communale development agency and CLEF a citizens cooperative which is raising €750,000 in 2011 to invest in the wind farm with shares starting at €250. continue reading »

By Tuuliki Kasonen, General Manager of Estonian Wind Power Association

Ever heard of people saying “life is nowadays happening online”? Well, that’s where the Global Wind Day took place in Estonia this year. The key activities were fun video clips going viral in social media combined with an online interview where people were able to ask everything about wind energy. We handed out flower seeds at the Ehituse ABC (Building ABC) stores but for that single physical action that took place in four cities we also had a home-made video of how to plant those seeds. continue reading »

By Angelika Pullen, Communications Director, GWEC

A consumer label for wind power called WindMade could soon be coming to the market, to show consumers which companies and products use wind energy. This is an idea that was first announced in January this year, and after many months of hard work and anticipation, new details were made public on Global Wind Day (15 June).

During a media briefing in New York City, the WindMade consortium, which consists of Vestas, GWEC, WWF, Bloomberg, LEGO and the UN Global Compact, presented the first proposed technical standard for the WindMade label for companies. This standard contains the main requirements that a company has to fulfil in order to apply for using the label. continue reading »

By Alexander Zirkel, BWE

Berlin. The Global Wind Day 2011 comes to Germany in a time of great change in its energy policy. After the terrible incidences in Fukushima, Japan, the German federal government wants the definite ending of the use of nuclear energy in Germany until 2022. Therefore a massive extension of renewable energy within the next few years is more then necessary.

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A 45% renewable energy target for 2030 would create the future policy-stability the green energy sector the needs, was one of the main messages emerging from last night’s public debate on EU energy policy post-2020.

New energy policies must be drawn-up today, and not in 2020 when the current targets expire, Josche Muth, Secretary General of the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) said at the debate organised by the European Wind Energy Association. The call was backed by Claude Turmes, MEP, who said that renewables are becoming a mainstream source of electricity faster than was forseen. continue reading »