The overall objective of WinWind was to enhance the socially inclusive and environmentally sound market uptake of wind energy by increasing its social acceptance in 'wind energy scarce regions' (WESR). WESR are defined as regions with wind energy penetration levels that are lower than the EU average, despite having considerable economic potentials. The project has selected a number of target regions including Saxony and Thuringia in Germany, Latium and Abruzzo in Italy, Latvia, Norway, the Warmian-Masurian Province in Poland and the Balearic Islands in Spain. Within these regions, assessments were carried out on the conditions, barriers and drivers affecting social acceptance of wind energy.
WinWind pursued the following specific objectives:
1) identification and assessment of region-specific barriers and social acceptance challenges in selected target regions constraining market deployment;
2) evaluation of legal, institutional and political drivers and barriers for social acceptance and support at community, regional, national and European level;
3) development of a taxonomy of social acceptance barriers and drivers in the target regions;
4) assessment and knowledge-building about social and environmental impacts of wind energy including community benefits, taking into account regional specificities, socioeconomic, spatial and environmental aspects;
5) identification and assessment of best practice policies and measures and novel governance mechanisms in the selected six countries and beyond, enhancing social acceptance
6) analysis of critical success factors of novel governance mechanisms in community engagement and assessment of the necessary conditions for their transfer and uptake in other contexts;
7) engagement with nationa/regional stakeholders to transfer knowledge about social and environmental impacts of wind energy and initiate a transfer of suitable measures and concepts within and between the partner countries and WESR (“learning laboratories”);
8) development of guiding principles and criteria for fair (i.e. socially inclusive and environmentally sound) wind energy as a guide for policy development taking into account innovative bottom-up initiatives in selected MS, accompanied by a strategy for implementation;
9) creation and engagement in a dialogue between WinWind desks and EU stakeholders to assess how policy relevant initiatives at the country level (e.g. fair wind labels) can be adapted to the EU level to accelerate social acceptance, community participation and citizens´ engagement in wind energy;
10) facilitation of policy learning within each partner country and target regions and among the countries and regions to contribute to improving national and regional policy as well as planning frameworks to improve community participation and engagement.
By the end of the project all objectives have been reached and some of them were even outperformed (7-10).
The workflow was based on the following steps:
1) Analysis of social acceptance drivers and barriers in the target regions; 2) Good/Best practice analysis; 3) Best practice transfer; 4) Lessons learnt and policy recommendations.
In parallel to these, the consortium organised stakeholder dialogues via country specific stakeholder desks, thematic workshops and stakeholder consultations. The six country desks were important vehicles in ensuring broad stakeholder participation through regular and solution-oriented stakeholder dialogues. Each desk consisted of the project partners and at least 15 selected stakeholders and market actors (including developers, investors, community energy groups, associations, local and regional authorities, policy-makers, NGOs) of each country or target region.
