Despite the wet and wild weather on the weekend of August 27/28, 350 people from across Ross-shire braved the elements to visit the Novar Wind Farm on hills overlooking Alness, as part of the first national wind farm open day.

Novar Wind Farm and 14 other UK wind farms opened their doors and welcomed thousands of visitors to 'Touch a Turbine' over the weekend. The Novar event was held by npower renewables who developed and now operates the wind farm, while the UK wide co-ordination of the Wind Weekend was managed by Embrace the Revolution - a campaign which is encouraging the silent majority who support wind power to register their backing.

The Novar event was hosted at the Ardross Community Hall near Alness with buses running throughout the weekend to take people to the see the wind turbines. Additional activities at the hall included face painting, exhibitions, artwork and making windmills. The Highland Energy Efficiency team was on hand to offer advice to visitors to help them improve the level of energy efficiency in their homes and offices, as well as offering free low energy light bulbs.

In the drier weather on Saturday, there was also an opportunity for adults and children to "Touch a Turbine" and leave a painted handprint on canvas stretched around the base of a turbine tower.

The weekend was designed to show people what wind farms are actually all about, an npower renewables spokesman said, "A recent independent NOP World survey found almost three-quarters of Scots (72%) agree wind farms are necessary to help meet the country's current and future energy needs. The poll also found that a little over half of Scots had seen or visited a working wind farm. This weekend provided many more with the opportunity to get close to the turbines and those visiting Novar certainly seemed to approve!"

The open day followed the recent announcement that planning permission to build an additional 16 turbines at Novar has been granted. Construction of these new turbines is expected to begin sometime in 2008.

For further information about registering your support for wind power visit the Embrace website at www.embracewind.com.

For further information contact:

• Patrick Spink, PR Officer, npower renewables
  Tel: 0118 959 2440

1. npower renewables is a leading UK renewable energy generator, committed to developing and operating wind farms, biomass schemes and hydro plants that produce sustainable and environmentally-friendly electricity. The company operates 15 wind farms in the UK, of which 4 are located across Scotland. In addition to the 267MW of installed wind energy generation that it currently operates, npower renewables also operates some 55MW of hydroelectric power.



2. Embrace the Revolution is a new campaign to give a voice to the majority of people in the UK who support wind energy. The campaign is uniting those in favour of wind energy and challenging myths that wind farms are unpopular, noisy and a blot on the landscape. Embrace the Revolution is run by the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), the trade and professional body for the UK wind industry. For further information please contact Lisa, Emma or Cheryl on 0207 403 2230.

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