It’s an incredibly busy and interesting time to be involved in the European wind industry, Bruce Douglas, COO, EWEA tells PES. Among other ways to get more involved are adopting a wind turbine as your own and attending one or more of the many trade fairs that are taking place throughout Europe …
If you are attending a wind energy event in the next year or so or happen to be flicking through a wind industry or EU news magazine you may well be struck by unusual images of toothpaste and chewing gum accompanied by the slogan: Give Europe a breath of fresh air. Despite their appearance, the images are not advertising dental hygiene, but wind energy and are part of a European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) campaign launched earlier this year and running for a full year. The main aim of the campaign is to highlight the multiple benefits of wind energy.
EWEA is offering the opportunity to adopt a wind turbine in Europe as a way of showing popular support for wind energy. Visit the campaign website – http://freshair.ewea.org – follow the instructions, and become the proud adopter of your very own turbine. A second string to the campaign’s bow is that adopters of a turbine can encourage their friends, family and colleagues to vote for their turbine – the owner of the turbine with the most votes wins a trip for two to visit a wind farm in Copenhagen or Switzerland.
“The idea of adopting a turbine is that you choose a real one wherever you like in Europe on an online map, and your name will be added to it so that visitors can see it belongs to you,” said Elke Zander, EWEA’s Campaigns Officer. “You can then tell your friends which turbine you have adopted and they can ‘become a fan of it – the turbines with the most fans will be listed on the website, and when the campaign comes to a close in EWEA 2011 in Brussels, the adopters of the most popular turbines will win prizes.”
Of course, behind the fun and lure of prizes, there are serious messages about the benefits of wind energy. “The messages of the new campaign focus on three key advantages of wind: its contribution to security of supply, a strong and sustainable economy and a cleaner environment,” said Julian Scola, EWEA’s Communication Director. “The idea behind the adverts and the slogan is that the wind is literally, of course, fresh air, but that at the same time it can give the figurative, refreshing breath of fresh air to a Europe overly dependent on polluting fossil fuel imports from unstable third countries.”
