IEA R&D WIND TASK XI
The Operating Agent
April 13th 2012
To: Members of the Executive Committee, IEA R&D Wind, Task XI
Topical Expert Meeting #70
on
"Social Acceptance of Wind Energy Projects"
Dear Colleague,
At the Executive Committee meeting nr 68 in Dublin (Ireland) it was decided to arrange the 70th
Topical Expert Meeting on "Social Acceptance of Wind Energy Projects" in cooperation with
IEA Wind Task 28. Venue and date for the meeting is as follows:
Hotel Elite
Rue de la Gare, Rue de la Gare 14, 2501 Biel, Switzerland
June 14th to 16th, 2012
The meeting will start on Thursday, 9:00 am. At afternoon will be a Swiss expert session
organized together with the Swiss Wind Energy Association Suisse Eole. On Friday, 9:00 am to
5:00 pm, international experts will continue to discuss the results of IEA Wind Task 28 and
will define issues to be addressed in the possible extension of IEA Wind Task 28 into a second
period. Saturday, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, will serve as a “kick-off” meeting of the possible
extension period of IEA Wind Task 28 focussing on specific activities of Task 28 and work on
State-of-the-Art and Good Practices.
For Thursday and Friday, all international experts on the issue of Task 28 are welcome for full
participation. The discussions on Saturday are intended for IEA Wind countries already
participating in Task 28 or interested in entering for the second period. However, international
experts present on June 14th and June 15th are welcome to participate as guests to the meeting.
In order to give meeting background and aim, an Introductory Note is attached to this letter.
Some of the participants in the meeting are requested to give a short and informal presentation of
results from ongoing research/experiences and future plans. The Operating Agent of IEA Wind
Task 28 will contact you concerning the presentation.
Details on travel and accommodation can be found below. Local host is the Operating Agent of
IEA Wind Task 28, Robert Horbaty with Stefanie Huber.
Questions regarding content and the agenda will be answered by myself on +34 91 417 50 42 /
638 095909 or e-mail favia@cener.com. Please inform me of the participants you would like to
send to the symposium. An Acrobat Reader version of this invitation can be found on the
Internet: http://www.ieawind.org/Task_11/Task_11_HomePage.html
Best regards
Felix Avia Aranda, Task 11 Operating Agent
Attachments:
1. IEA Background and Meeting Format
2. Practical arrangements
3. Introductory Note
1. IEA Background and Meeting Format
The objective of IEA R&D Wind Task 11 is to promote wind turbine technology through cooperative activities and information exchange on R&D topics of common interest. One way to
achieve this is to gather experts in Topical Expert Meetings (TEM).
More information can be obtained from:
IEA general
IEA official home page
IEA RD&D Wind general
http://www.iea.org/
http://www.ieawind.org/
Task 11
General information
http://www.ieawind.org/summary_page_xi.html
Meeting format
The meetings are of the workshop type, where information is presented and discussed in an open
manner. The participants decide by themselves what they would like to present. Guidance for
presentations is given in the Introductory Note that is distributed together with the invitation to
the meeting. This implies that there is no list of presentations in advance.
The TEM on Social Acceptance will be differ from the original format in several ways – as a
rather large audience is to be expected, not all participants will be able to present, however all
participants will be contacted by the Operating Agent of Task 28 in advance on the issue. The
meeting includes three days in total (1/2 day Swiss expert meeting, 1.5 day international expert
meeting, 1 day meeting focussing on Task 28 activities and questions.
The agenda usually covers the following items:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Collecting proposals for presentations
Introduction, host
Introduction by Operating Agent, Recognition of Participants
Presentation of Introductory Note
Individual presentations
Discussion
Summary of meeting
Documentation
Proceedings will be prepared soon after the meeting. To assist in this, the participants are urged
to bring along one copy (preferably in digital format) of the material they want to have included
in the documentation. A summary of the meeting will be written by the host or persons involved
in preparing the Introductory Note.
Miscellaneous
For presentation purposes a computer and beamer will be available. Please bring your
presentation on a memory stick or CD.
2. Practical arrangements
Date and venue
Location:
Hotel Elite, Rue de la Gare 14, 2501 Biel, Switzerland
Date and time:
Start: Thursday, 14th June 2012 at 9 am
End: Saturday, 16th June 2012 at 4pm
Travel and Accommodation
Meeting Place
Hotel Elite, Rue de la Gare 14, Biel, Switzerland
http://www.hotelelite.ch/
Hotels/Accommodation:
A number of hotel rooms have been reserved for the nights of June 13th, 14th and 15th.
Please do your own booking and mention “Topical Expert Meeting” and the exact date of the
nights you want to stay at the hotel. Please do your booking by May 20th at the latest.
Cost of accommodation will be paid by the participants directly to the hotel at check out. The
cost is listed as below.
Hotel
Room Price per night
Remark
Incl. breakfast
Elite
160 CHF (about 190 €) Meeting venue
Continental 110 CHF (about 130 €) About 5-10 minutes walk from the venue
Hotel Elite
 Rue de la Gare 14, 2501 Biel
 Phone: 0041 32 328 77 77, Fax: 0041 32 328 77 70, e-mail: events@hotelelite.ch
 http://www.hotelelite.ch/
Hotel Continental
 Aarbergstrasse 29, 2502 Biel
 Phone: 0041 32 327 27 27, Fax: 0041 32 327 27 26, e-mail: info@continentalbienne.ch
 http://www.continental-bienne.ch/
Map
Travel Instructions
There are three airports in the same distance to Biel:
 Geneva airport (GVA), www.gva.ch
 Zürich airport (ZRH), www.flughafen-zuerich.ch
 Basel airport (BSL), www.euroairport.com
From Geneva and Zürich, there is a direct train connection from the airport to Biel main station.
From the airport in Basel, you first have to take a bus to the main station of Basel SBB.
Getting between the airport and Biel:
 Airport Geneva to Biel: direct hourly train, takes 1h 36 min, costs 65€ one way 2nd
class
 Airport Zürich to Biel: direct half-hourly train, takes 1h 30 min, costs 60€ one way
2nd class
 Airport Basel to Biel: Airport bus Nr. 50 to train station, then direct hourly train,
takes 1 h 33 min, costs 40€ one way 2nd class
For train time table see www.sbb.ch. Taxis take around 2 hours and cost about 200 €. Cars can
be rented directly at the airports. The homepage of the regional tourism office is http://www.bielseeland.ch/en/home.html.
Urgent questions
If you have any urgent questions related to the meeting, please contact
Stefanie Huber (if not available: Robert Horbaty or Corinne Bryner)
Tel.: +41 61 965 99 00
Stefanie.huber@enco-ag.ch
3. INTRODUCTORY NOTE (IEA Wind Task 28)
IEA WIND TASK 28
IEA Wind Task 28 was founded around 2008 when wind energy development was stopped or
extremely slowed down in several IEA Wind countries by strong opposition and media debates.
Today, the industry has strongly grown and the capacities in all countries have increased.
However, looking at the struggles still encountered in many countries and at the challenges
ahead – e.g. concerning the importance of wind power for the global and national energy policies
- many countries will need to invest in social acceptance measures to be able to put into
operation the required capacities. IEA Wind Task 28 can support these policies by exchanging
good examples, by connecting researcher, administrations, politicians, associations and
practitioners from various countries and by disseminating lessons learned in presentations,
publications and web contributions.
Some of the dissemination activities of the last three years include:
 Web site including a web data base of social acceptance projects and publications
(www.socialacceptance.ch)
 Participation at the annual EWEA conference
 Presentations of working group members at national and international expert
gatherings
 Articles e.g. in national branch magazines and peer reviewed journals, interviews
 National expert meetings (organized in connection with working group meetings;
US 2009, Dublin 2010, the Netherlands and Norway 2011).
SCOPE OF IEA WIND TASK 28 AND ITS SECOND PERIOD 2012-2014
Three years of experience within the working group and supporting institutions of IEA Wind
Task 28 on social acceptance of wind energy have shown the international exchange on social
acceptance issues to be extremely valuable for those involved such as administrations, the
research community, IEA Wind members and for further wind energy promoters in the
respective countries, e.g. wind energy associations. The development of wind energy respectively the debates surrounding the projects in the field - have also proven that social
acceptance is a topic to be further deepened if the policy targets for renewable energy production
are to be accomplished: specific projects require social acceptance to be realized and proponents
and opponents need support to work together to improve the projects. This seems to be
increasingly recognized by industry as well as administrative institutions, but to achieve longterm acceptance of wind power, the topic needs further attention and escorting projects such as
Task 28 with their interdisciplinary and trans-national approach.
The work of Task 28 should therefore be continued in 2012 and following years on the basis of
the topics identified as crucial to social acceptance, the international exchange within IEA Wind
and dialogue with the various stakeholders.
The main areas of the future work of Task 28 proposed for the next period can be summarized as
follows:
 Measurement and monitoring resp. quantification / valuation, assessment of the
magnitude of the issue and tracking of developments
 Support for the establishment of policies and standards; successful supporting
structures
 Discussion of current and new issues influencing social acceptance that are being
debated in the participating countries and stressing of research gaps
 Deduction / dissemination of the lessons learned, good practices, successful
strategies etc.
Taking into account the importance of wind energy development not only in industrial, but also
in developing countries, the participation of further IEA Wind countries is encouraged for the
new period.
Task 28 will deliver overviews on the issue of social acceptance in various countries and will
provide inputs for national legislation and implementation based on experience from other
regions. The network of international experts will assist the participating countries in developing
their knowledge and will provide possibilities to sensitize experts and practitioners on the issue
of social acceptance. The awareness on the importance of social acceptance of wind power and
the knowledge on successful strategies will improve wind projects in the participating countries.
TEM – AIM, AUDIENCE, AGENDA
The TEM on Social Acceptance in 2012 will serve
 as a “success control” of the first phase: feedback to results and the final report of
IEA Wind Task 28
 as a discussion of issues and targets for the second phase: issues to be elaborated,
State-of-the-Art in the countries and disciplines present at the TEM, Good
Practices from the various backgrounds.
The focus lies on the improvement of social acceptance of wind energy projects, but will also
include aspects of acceptance of transmission infrastructure.
The target audience for this workshop includes
 IEA Wind Task 28 working group members and national experts from its network
 Researchers, experts and practitioners from IEA Wind countries and countries
interested in participation in the second phase of IEA Wind Task 28
 Experts on Social Acceptance issues from non-IEA Wind-countries such as France,
Eastern Europe, Asia, and South America
The meeting is intended for up to 50 people attending the TEM.
The outcome of the workshop is expected to be a document or a proceeding of the workshop
which will include:
 A summary of the workshop
 Presentations by participants
 A compilation of topics that are crucial for future development of foundation
structures
The specific agenda will be arranged based on the topics of all presentation.