Engaging local communities to dispel wind myths

Recent news has been littered with onshore wind farm planning proposal rejections. Yet another rejection was reported this week for a nine-turbine wind farm on the edge of the Lake District.

Yet, in an article here, The Guardian reported that the UK will miss carbon emissions targets unless the government takes urgent action. Renewable energy resources, specifically wind energy, are vital in helping the UK hit its emissions targets, but in order for wind farms to pass through the often arduous planning process without delay, we believe that it is essential to engage and encourage local communities to show support for wind farm plans.

One great, recent example of this is the Hill of Fiddes wind farm that engaged a local primary school in Aberdeenshire in a competition to choose names for three wind turbines recently built near their school. The winning pupils were then invited to cut a ribbon and launch the wind farm.

If local communities are not engaged at a local level early on, NIMBYs (those who would not support wind in their back yard) often will very vocally oppose any plans and spread wind myths to cause delay to or the rejection of a wind farm. Earlier this week we published a guest blog from a local campaigner fighting to gain support for a renewables development at Lenchwick in Worcestershire. The campaigner found that while the majority of local residents favoured the wind farm, the NIMBYs were far more active in loudly voicing their opinion and therefore succeeded in greatly delaying the approval process. You can read this blog post here.

As this post quite rightly states, we can’t allow local democracy to be overturned so quickly by NIMBYs. That’s why it’s important that we construct a community that will help to produce ideas and active support for wind farm applications. If you’d like to take part, or support a local wind farm, please sign up to the EmbraceMyPlanet website here on our homepage. Here, you can lobby your local MP, join your local group of wind farm supporters and show your support for a specific wind farm.