As the WENDY project comes to a close, we look back on three years of research, engagement, and collaboration aimed at tackling one of the biggest challenges for renewable energy: social acceptance of wind farms.
Why WENDY?
Wind energy plays a central role in Europe’s clean energy transition. Yet, despite strong overall support for renewables, local opposition to wind farms can delay or even block new projects. WENDY set out to understand the root causes of these challenges and to provide practical solutions that balance technical, environmental, economic, and social factors.
What we did
Throughout the project, WENDY combined research, case studies, and community engagement in four pilot countries—Greece, Italy, Norway, and Spain. Some of the published results so far include:
- Mapping lighthouse wind farms across Europe to identify best practices in community engagement and benefit-sharing (D2.1).
- Analysing framework conditions at EU, national, and regional levels that shape acceptance (D2.2).
- Conducting surveys and interviews with more than 3,500 participants, revealing drivers and barriers of public perception (D2.3).
- Identifying challenges and needs for improved acceptance and participation, highlighting solutions such as ownership models and transparent permitting (D2.4).
- Developing integrated environmental tools, including a life-cycle assessment model that incorporates biodiversity and ecosystem services (D3.1) and a handbook of design solutions to reduce impacts on birds and bats (D3.2).
- Designing KPIs and a single multi-variable indicator to evaluate wind projects holistically, beyond cost and production (D3.4, D4.3).
- Launching a Societal Engagement and Capacity Building Programme with local champions and workshops to test new approaches in practice (D5.1, D5.2).
- Creating the Knowledge Exchange Platform (KEP), an open hub where all reports, tools, and resources are available to stakeholders (D6.2).
- Building strong synergies with sister projects JustWind4All and WIMBY, amplifying outreach and co-developing knowledge (D7.3).
What we learned
Across all studies and interventions, WENDY found that:
- Trust and transparency are critical to public support.
- Economic participation and benefit-sharing significantly increase acceptance.
- Tailored, local approaches work better than one-size-fits-all solutions.
- Environmental integration tools can help balance biodiversity protection with renewable expansion.
- Social acceptance interventions—from early engagement to co-creation—need to be embedded systematically in wind project planning.
What’s next?
The findings of WENDY will live on through the WENDY Knowledge Exchange Platform, ensuring that policymakers, developers, researchers, and communities can access the tools and insights developed. These results provide a strong foundation for future projects and will support Europe in building wind energy that is not only clean and efficient, but also fair, trusted, and accepted by the communities it serves.