When I tell people I work in wind energy, the reaction is generally one of approval. Wind energy is green, it helps the planet. People approve.

Despite this, most developers of wind farms will have had to deal at one time or other with ‘NIMBYism’ which can cause delays to projects. And any delay to a wind farm project costs time and money to a developer – and delays the environmental and economic benefits from the wind farm. Wind Directions investigates the issue of public acceptance and how it can be managed.

Turbines at the Altamont Pass wind farm in California, one of the earliest wind farms in the United States and the largest concentration of wind turbines in the world, will soon be repowered and upgraded.

The San Jose Mercury News reported last week that a vast number of turbines at Altamont Pass east of San Francisco are to be replaced by newer, more efficient models.

Barclays bank has launched a new £100 million investment fund for UK farmers to invest in renewable energy, the bank announced this week. The launch of the fund follows a survey of UK farmers carried out by Barclays which found that over one-third are “expecting to invest in renewable energy, with the majority doing so within the next year.”

Some 80% of the farmers questioned said they think that renewable energy can provide significant cost savings, with 60% saying that renewable energy could generate additional income for their farm business, Barclays said. Meanwhile, Barclays itself predicts that the costs of wind power will fall by up to 50% in the next three to five years.

Ireland joins a list of other European countries – including Germany, Austria and Portugal – to launch wind energy education programmes aimed at schools. In this guest post, Johanna Cafferkey from the Irish Wind Energy Association, tells us about a new education project in Ireland.

By: Johanna Cafferkey, IWEA

This August the IWEA (Irish Wind Energy Association), with the support of Gaelectric Group, launched a new training course for primary and secondary school teachers with the objective of strengthening knowledge and understanding of Ireland’s massive reserves of renewable power.

This is an important message as Ireland has the potential to create 28,000 jobs in renewable energy by 2020. In order to realise this potential, it is crucial that we support our educators in building their understanding of Ireland’s cutting edge technology in the wind energy industry.