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The wind power industry launched "Embrace" in autumn 04 - a national PR campaign to highlight the high level of public support that exists for the industry and to show that those opposed are in fact an overly vociferous minority. You can show your support by visiting: http://www.embracewind.com. Supporters' names will be displayed on four new wind turbines, to be erected in early 2005.

The site lists a number of prevalent myths about wind power and provides counter-arguments. It suggests the following letter to send to your MP (you could expand this by using some of the information below).

To: MP, House of Commons, London SW1A OAA
Dear ..
I'm writing to you to let you know that I fully support the development of wind energy in the UK. Wind power is our most advanced renewable technology and the UK has the best wind resource in Europe. Wind is ready now to be used both onshore and offshore and will help the UK lead the world in developing renewables. It will create tens of thousands of new jobs, help our nation's energy security and playa central role in tackling climate change; the most pressing environmental issue the world currently faces.

Some windpower facts from the Embrace site:

• The UK is the windiest country in Europe.
• A modern wind turbine is designed to run continuously for over 20 years, or for 120,000 hours. By comparison, the design lifetime of a car engine is only 4,000 to 6,000 hours.
• Wind turbines are a remarkably robust technology, designed to be operated remotely, needing only 40 hours maintenance time per year.
• There are wind turbines installed and generating electricity in the desert, the Arctic and even in the North Sea.
• A typical turbine in the UK will generate over 4.7 million units of electricity each year - enough to make 170 million cups of tea a year, to run a computer for 1620 years, or to meet the electricity demands of more than 1,000 homes each year.
• The blades on a modem wind turbine sweep 48 tons of air every second, thats the same weight as 10 elephants or 5 double decker buses.
• Every unit of electricity from a wind turbine displaces one from conventional power stations: wind turbines in the UK currently prevent the emission of one and three-quarter millions tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.
• The impetus for modem wind turbines came with the oil crisis of the mid-70s and the technology advanced so rapidly that wind energy is listed as one of the top ten inventions of the 1980's.
• In the last 20 years, the power production of wind turbines has increased by a factor of 100, while the costs of generating electricity from the wind has fallen by 80%.
• Wind is the fastest growing energy source worldwide, and has been for over a decade with an annual growth rate of 30%.
• The global wind industry has an estimated annual turnover of £5.5 billion, 84% of which is based in Europe.
  

Source: Ealing FOE newsletter Nov 04.

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