Almost 10,000 people have taken part in the EWEA 2010 campaign by adopting wind turbines or voting for the ones their friends had adopted in order to show their support for wind energy.

The ‘Breath of fresh air’ campaign is coming to an exciting point in just a few days: EWEA will be able to announce the two winners of the ‘tell a friend’ contest who will win a trip to Denmark and Switzerland.

One prize is a weekend in Copenhagen including a wind farm visit organised by the Danish Wind Industry Association. Denmark is the world’s wind energy pioneer with more than 20% of its electricity being produced by wind. Denmark is also home to major wind turbine manufacturers and its capital, home to the oldest monarchy in the world, has numerous museums, world-class modern architecture and a network of canals and cobbled squares that will take you back in time.

Nations can experience tremendous renewable energy investment growth over the next decade by adopting enhanced energy and climate policies, according to a new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The 77-page report found investments in wind power and other renewable energy assets in G-20 countries are projected to reach $189 billion by 2020 if governments implement no additional policies.

Financing increases to $212 billion if the G-20 countries enact the pledges they made shortly after the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen last December.

It’s that time of year again when the world’s attention shifts to the overwhelming need to limit and then radically reduce greenhouse gases caused by burning fossil fuels.

Organised by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the talks that started Monday in Cancun don’t appear to be laden down by the heady excitement that was palpable when last year’s annual conference began in Copenhagen.

As the world now knows, that optimism soon turned sour as the resulting so-called  Copenhagen Accord was neither a legally-binding treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol which lapses in 2012 nor a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are causing global warming.

With under a month to go, the competition to win a weekend in Copenhagen or the Swiss Alps as part of EWEA’s Breath of Fresh Air campaign is growing fierce. One of the strongest contenders for a prize is 26 year old Bruno Mignogna from Molise in Italy, who works at the national agency for Energy and the Environment (ENEA) in Rome. He told us why he decided to adopt a turbine and tell his friends about it.

Why do you support wind energy?

In 1998, the first wind turbines were installed close to where my grandfather lived in the region where I come from, Molise. (The turbine I adopted on www.ewea.org/freshair is one of these). Since then I started studying how wind energy works, and during my studies I saw many wind farms being put up, with turbines that got bigger and bigger!

The latest example of Australia getting serious about developing its vast wind power potential occurred last week at an industry forum in Cairns with an announced plan that construction of a $560 million (€400 million) wind farm and visitor centre could begin by the end of next year.

According to The Cairns Post, Wendy Morris, of property developer Port Bajool,  described the planned 220 MW wind farm and its accompanying $12 million (€8.6 mn) energy innovation centre as “one of the bright shining lights” for the Tablelands area, which has been dealing with a sluggish economy.

The newspaper reported that the 80 turbine wind facility, located near Mt. Emerald southwest of Mareeba, could produce enough electricity to power Tablelands and up to 60% of Cairns.