Good practice:

Open Day in honour of Global Wind Day

Open day events at several wind farms in Normandy around 15 June, which is Global Wind Day. Visits to the facilities are organised (delivery substation, base of the turbine, sometimes climbing up the turbine itself, although this requires specific supervision to ensure visitor safety), conferences, discussions with local residents who live near the wind farms, celebrations on site. The initiative addresses the lack of knowledge about the wind industry and how a wind farm works.
Main stakeholders involved: the owner of the wind farm, as well as the operator, landowners and farmers, local elected officials, local residents, regional residents (at least at an ECPI [public establishment for cooperation between local authorities] level).

Costs covered by the organiser of the open day (the owner or operator of the wind farm). This usually requires supervision by 15 people on site: a technician, an engineer, a communications officer, a project manager.

It provides residents with an opportunity to visit the wind farm with an insider; this helps them to understand how this infrastructure works and its purpose; they are more likely to welcome infrastructure which makes sense to them. Participation in this kind of event is always good (100 to 200 visitors per wind farm) and feedback in the local press is positive.

Ensuring that visits are safe (facilities are classified for environmental protection, although the public may not be aware of this). Planning communication about the event and its schedule so that visitors know where to go (which wind farm, how to get there, where to park, when, why, etc.

The day isn’t specific to Normandy. It is organised around the world and could be further developed in some areas. The idea is to appropriate and develop the event so that it becomes more widespread in more regions.