ANNUAL UK WIND WEEKEND BIGGER THEN EVER

Wind Weekend, a national wind energy awareness day, is organised by BWEA and coincides with European Wind Day. This year in Britain there are 20 venues open to the public in the run up and during the weekend, with a further 150 events Europe-wide. BWEA has set up an information portal on www.embracewind.com/wffinder to flag up the events.

"Wind energy in the UK is going through a period of tremendous growth. In a little over two years we have doubled the amount of wind capacity installed and are looking to overtake nuclear by 2013", said BWEA Chief Executive Maria McCaffery adding "The case about the potential of wind to help deliver an energy sustainable future for Britain needs to heard, and UK Wind Weekend is such an opportunity."

The UK currently has 174 wind farms with an installed capacity of 2.5 gigawatts. Around 1.4 million UK homes are powered by wind energy, which unlike coal, oil and gas fired generation, produces no carbon emissions.

"If every wind farm in the planning system were given the go ahead a further 5 million UK homes could be powered by green electricity," Maria McCaffery continued. "We hope the success of events such as Wind Weekend will act as a reminder to planners that the vast majority of people think the UK should build more wind farms."

"Wind Weekend is about forging strong links with the community and educating people on how wind farms work and how they are helping the UK fight climate change. Last year saw over 40,000 people attend various events across Europe. We know that 80% of us think wind farms are a positive thing, their voice needs to be heard," concluded McCaffery.