We marked the ninth edition of Global Wind Day by celebrating the fact that wind power has now crossed the 500GW landmark. We also talked about the need to tackle the overcapacity of polluting and inefficient fossil power plants, and how shutting down these old plants, as well as reducing CO2 emissions and air pollution, would help drive the demand necessary to keep the renewable energy industry thriving in established markets, with massive environmental, health, and economic benefits. See more details on our press release.
It was great to see all the buzz created in social media, mainly on Twitter and Facebook, many members and fans had made their own banners, videos and infographics. Global Wind Day has truly established its place as a day when the industry can make noise about wind power benefits, people around the world can show their support for wind power and companies can showcase their technologies and contributions to local economic development and job creation at a grass roots level.
Events were again organised worldwide from football matches in Greece to a windmill screw competition in Austria and a kids creative arts and writing competition in South Africa.
In the run up to Global Wind Day, WindEurope and GWEC also organised a global photo competition Capture the power of wind. We received over 700 entries over three categories - Wind and nature, Wind at sea and Wind Works - from which the jury consisting of Darius Snieckus/Recharge news, Lejla Latifovic/CanWEA, Sonia Franco/AEE, Giles Dickson/WindEurope and Steve Sawyer/GWEC selected the best shots. The winners were announced on Global Wind Day, see who won and take a look at the winning photographs here.