The working group under the Nordic Council of Ministers for wind energy held its first workshop this year in Copenhagen on 11. October. The main focus of the workshop was local presence and acceptance in connection with the establishment of wind farms.
Involvement of the local community is always important in order to create an understanding of the values of wind energy and the potential impacts it poses. Local anchoring is also a tool for limiting the organized opposition to wind power.

But what is the “local connection”?
Local presence is the interaction between planners, communities and people who are affected by the wind power projects. The workshop showed that most of the opposition often comes down to communication, meaning the ability of the planners to understand different reactions / interests and the local community’s ability to understand and manage change.To create understandable communication the workshop came up with a simple, but difficult, piece of advice: Create a dialogue in small groups with the local community and always start information on wind energy in a global context and scale it down to the local and individual levels.

To ensure good “local connection” the workshop summarized it in these points:

  • Everyone should be informed and able to follow the work
  • Establish small groups
  • Create active participation
  • Have an understanding of different interests
  • Strive for cooperation between different interests
  • Develop wind power values and the influence
  • Refer to national and regional materials (goals, plans, etc.)
  • Create local benefit, employment, economics, ownership, etc.
  • View the individual benefit, shared ownership, cooperatives, etc.
  • Cooperation with opponents often difficult but true
  • Create cooperation between municipalities
  • Clarify and develop opportunitiesListen, listen

For more details please visit and study presentations from the seminar below or visit the working group’s webpage www.nordvind.org.