Today, the relationship between wind farms and communities remains fractious, at least in some parts of the world. At the end of 2019, a rash of stories about the “wildly unpopular” wind farms in Germany hit the headlines. Bloomberg reported the construction of “giant windmills” across the country had “all but ground to a halt”, in part thanks to local opposition.

However, it’s not a view shared by Maxime Oillic of industry body WindEurope. “Opinion polls show that the public across Europe is very supportive of wind energy. A consistent 70%–80% of people are in favour,” he says. However he accepts there is likely a difference in attitudes towards wind power in general and wind farms in particular.

“The attitudes of people living near wind farms are complex as they’re also influenced by local needs, personal factors and emotional attachments to a place. But even then, recent polls conducted among those who live near wind farms and in rural areas in countries like Germany, France or Ireland show very high levels of support,” he continues.

Local authorities too have begun to implement regulations which make it more difficult to obtain permits and then produce power cost effectively. For a country which prides itself on its use of renewables – where almost a quarter (23.5%) of power generation in 2019 was wind – the news was likely a hard pill to swallow.

Germany is not alone. The UK, where in 2019 renewable power overtook fossil fuels in the amount of electricity generated for the first time, has itself been contending with a public image issue. Recently, politicians have urged the government to roll back a decision taken by then prime minister David Cameron to cut subsidies. Declaring some were “frankly fed up” with onshore wind, his move in 2015 resulted in a dramatic fall in the number of new installations, dropping by 80% a year according to some figures.

Events in Germany and the UK, when compared with the opinion polls Oillic talks of, could leave even the most unprejudiced scratching their heads. So is wind as popular today as it previously has been?

“Public support for wind energy has been consistent over the years. People understand and recognise the benefits of renewable energy such as wind,” says Oillic. This, he adds, can only grow as our understanding of the damage climate change continues to wreak becomes more evident. As younger generations find their voice on the matter and pressure increases on governments to act, the use of wind power will grow further.

Despite the concerns, some of the global enthusiasm for wind continues apace. Costs have fallen significantly, making the energy source one of the cheapest options today. “And the maturity of technologies like wind has shown that they are credible alternatives to non-renewable energy sources,” says Oillic.

Such advances are a positive development for those unhappy with the prospect of having wind farms in their back yards. The International Energy Agency predicts by around 2040, offshore wind will become the largest source of electricity. “Although onshore will continue to be the largest in terms of capacity, offshore will be increasing a lot in the coming years,” says Oillic, suggesting developers may be able to construct off coast more easily, mitigating onshore community concerns.

Although this can’t be taken for granted, as the now-defunct Cape Wind Project attests. First mooted in 2001, the project quickly attracted scorn from residents. Together with other parties, they managed to delay the project for more than a decade before a final decision was taken to pull the plug.

It’s fair to say that historically the appetite for wind power has fluctuated, much like the natural phenomenon itself. However, in recent years it has played an ever-increasing roll in the energy mix of many industrialised and even developing nations. Aside from offering cleaner, more sustainable power it also has an economic benefit according to Oillic. “The wind industry employs more than 300,000 people in Europe and exports €8bn worth of high-tech equipment outside the EU each year,” he says.

As governments look to step up their efforts to attain net-zero carbon targets by the middle of the century – earlier in some cases – wind power will become even more critical. Accepting meeting those goals is “technically and economically feasible”, Oillic offers caution: “The energy transition requires major planning and investment in grids, storage, clean mobility solutions and infrastructures fit for a decarbonised economy.”

He adds the process to obtain a permit for new wind farms in Europe is “still too long and in certain countries it’s taking even longer than before”. As the situation in Germany suggests, projects are prone to ending up “stuck in the permitting pipeline”, something he says needs addressing.

Whatever the future might hold, some things are easy to predict: year-on-year growth will continue for the foreseeable future, big energy companies will continue to pour cash into research and development, and more communities will oppose farms for a myriad of reasons.

For Oillic, there is one critical piece of advice when addressing the latter: “The direct involvement of local communities in wind projects is key to keeping levels of support high. Windfarms create local jobs, contribute to improving the lives of residents through taxes paid to the local municipality and direct benefits, while giving further momentum to rural and peripheral areas.” Now, arguably, it’s simply a case of getting that message out, and heard.