The campaign builds on the efforts and success of the European Wind Day 2007 and 2008, in which over 20 countries participated in
Global Wind Day is an awareness campaign for the promotion of wind energy worldwide. The message is global: wind power works – it tackles climate change, it improves energy dependence on fossil fuels, and it is an intelligent investment. Thousands of Global Wind Day events have taken place simultaneously across 25 countries worldwide, all of which can be seen on a new, interactive Google map (http://www.globalwindday.org/index.php?id=6), which shows all the activities held at any location at the click of a mouse. Wind farm guided tours, conferences, exhibitions, workshops, information days, openings of new wind farms, regattas, marathons and theatrical shows were among the activities on offer.
Steve Sawyer, Secretary General of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) said, “We have the technology to transform the global energy system, and we can do so rapidly. That’s an important message for our leaders to hear so that they commit to making the cuts so desperately required, and we want it delivered in the strongest terms possible.”
The global wind energy industry has also used Global Wind Day as a launch pad for a new public awareness campaign called “Wind Power Works… Pass it on”, which aims to strengthen wide spread support for wind energy and call on policy makers to commit to significant carbon emissions reductions to combat climate change.
The ‘Wind Power Works… Pass it on’ campaign involves downloading a virtual wind turbine onto users’ desktops to show their support for wind energy and deep emissions cuts. These turbines will demonstrate how many homes can be powered and how much CO2 can be saved through wind energy. The more wind turbines downloaded, the stronger the call to world leaders to agree the reductions necessary to avert climate change and to make wind energy part of the solution.
The campaign wind turbine game can be downloaded at http://www.windpowerworks.net/passiton, which also provides a short video and campaign material. The campaign is also supported on Facebook and Twitter and encourages people to start their own virtual wind farms or join existing ones and to pass the idea on.
