Europe’s wind industry is undergoing a seismic shift, with developers rapidly shifting their attention from the faltering offshore market to onshore projects. In fact, a whopping 200,000 onshore wind farms have been proposed across Europe in the last year alone. But could this investment be undermined by one of wind energy’s chronic reputation challenges? Isolated turbine fires often receive disproportionate media attention, and as the industry gains momentum again, could fuel a wave of community opposition across Europe to these new projects. If developers don’t start proactively engaging with residents now to counteract the misinformation around turbine fires, they risk having their projects delayed or cancelled.

Within this roundtable, we will explore:

• Is inaccurate reporting on turbine fires fuelling community opposition to onshore wind projects?
• What steps should developers and OEMs take to reassure local citizens that wind farms are safe?
• What lessons can developers and OEMs learn from other countries when it comes to tackling community opposition?
• Why is it important to create standardised fire safety regulations and share data on turbine fire events?
• How can developers protect larger turbines that bring greater fire risks?
• Financing structures for the rollout of data centres — are robust PPAs essential?