WIMBY

The WIMBY project aims to enhance the adoption of wind power as a renewable energy source by addressing regulatory, social, and informational barriers that hinder its deployment. The project’s objective is to improve public acceptance of wind power and reduce resistance from local communities (often characterized as NIMBY—Not In My Backyard) by fostering engagement, transparency, and collaboration among stakeholders.

To achieve this, WIMBY uses innovative modeling to analyze the impacts, conflicts, and synergies of wind power installations. It also provides open-access resources and a Web-GIS platform that makes data accessible, allowing for early and continuous engagement of local stakeholders and the public in the planning, implementation, and operational stages of wind farm projects. By involving a multidisciplinary team of experts and creating user-friendly tools to address public concerns, WIMBY seeks to make informed, transparent decisions that align with the EU’s decarbonization goals and encourage societal support for sustainable wind energy development.

wimby

WP4 Macro-Level Analysis of Energy System Integration with High Wind Shares

his work package integrates social and environmental factors affecting local wind power deployment to analyze wind energy’s role in achieving net-zero emissions across Europe. The approach involves coupling the high-resolution highRES-Europe electricity system model—used for optimized infrastructure and operational planning—with wind resource data and environmental insights from previous work packages (WP1, WP2, and WP3). UCL and UiO lead the integration of these elements.

PSI will further advance the JRC-EU-TIMES model to include detailed wind power cost-potential curves across European nations. This model enhancement will address multiple impacts of wind power, including:

  • Social: Health and safety and landscape aesthetics.
  • Environmental: Biodiversity impacts, such as turbine shutdowns to reduce bird collisions.
  • Economic: Benefits like job creation associated with wind energy deployment.

The improved models will support multi-dimensional trade-off analyses for energy system design. The models will also assess options to mitigate social and environmental impacts of wind power, such as alternative turbine designs, business models, and community engagement mechanisms. The deliverable for this work package includes enhanced versions of highRES-Europe and JRC-EU-TIMES with new datasets, which will be utilized in subsequent analyses.

 

WP5 Assessing Synergies and Trade-offs - Applications and Recommendations

This work package applies the models and insights developed to explore synergies and trade-offs in wind power integration, using a scenario framework with Modelling to Generate Alternatives (MGA). MGA allows exploration of near-optimal solutions to balance cost, emissions, and other criteria.

Key activities include:

  • Linking the JRC-EU-TIMES model’s net-zero pathways for 2050 with highRES-Europe for detailed capacity planning and dispatch optimization.
  • Integrating the RE3ASON micro-level model through a typology of municipalities, allowing multi-scale analyses at European, national, and local levels.

This work package synthesizes all aspects of wind energy explored throughout the project, culminating in recommendations for researchers, planners, and policymakers. Findings will be shared via an interactive platform (developed in WP5) to facilitate stakeholder engagement and support decision-making.