The meeting marked the official conclusion of the Horizon 2020 project WinWind, coordinated by the Environmental Policy Research Centre FFU. The conference was attended by approximately 70 participants from research, public administration, business and civil society. The aim of the event was, among other things, to present the results of the project, to discuss factors influencing social acceptance and to present replicable measures to enhance acceptance for wind energy projects. The event took place at the Aquino Conference Centre in Berlin.

The conference was opened by the project coordinator Rosaria Di Nucci (FFU) and Jan Steinkohl, Policy Officer at the European Commission, who presented the EUs Clean Energy Package and outlined in particular the measures to promote citizens' energy. In her keynote speech, Prof. Gundula Hübner (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, MSH Medical School Hamburg) presented current national and international research results in the field of acceptance research.

The meeting consisted of four expert panels on key topics, such as the role of different acceptance factors or acceptance-promoting measures and the interaction of different political and administrative levels. The European dimension was brought to the forefront by Lutz Ribbe, Vice President of the Sustainable Development Observatory of the European and Social Committee. Michael Krug (FFU) presented criteria for fair wind energy developed within WinWind, and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of corresponding quality labels at the European and national levels.The panel consisted of representatives of WindEurope, the Polish Wind Energy Association and of regional public administration from Schleswig Holstein und Thuringia. In the concluding panel, FFU project coordinator Dr. Rosaria Di Nucci, Prof. Geraint Ellis, Queen's University Belfast and Dr. Dörte Ohlhorst, Technical University Munich, drew some lessons for future policy and discussed future research perspectives and recommendations for policy.

One of the highlights of the conference was the signing of three cooperation agreements (Memoranda of Understanding). With these agreements, the project partners and stakeholders acting as mentoring experts as well as practitioners from the WinWind partner countries confirmed their willingness to continue three transfer processes (e.g. to Poland and Latvia) already initiated within the framework of WinWind, especially in the field of community energy.

A poster section followed on the 27th of February on the"Market of Possibilities". Within this format, best practices from WinWind and other projects were presented and the participants were able to exchange information with WinWind project partners as well as other projects in related fields.

Lastly, the WinWind consortium took the opportunity to launch the WinWind Handbook which is intended to provide assistance on how socially inclusive wind energy can be realised.

Contact: dinucci@zedat.fu-berlin.de; mikru@zedat.fu-berlin.de