September 2025

New poster at the 8th Conference on Wind energy and Wildlife impacts CWW2025 in Montpellier

🌍 The study addresses a recurring myth in Greece: that wildfires are linked to the development of wind farms. Using GIS data on all wind farms installed in Greece up to the end of 2024, wildfire records (2008–2024), and forestry maps, the study found no correlation between the two.

📊 Some key findings:

• Wind farms located in reforestable areas occupy only a very small fraction of such land—at most 0.07%.
• For wildfires occurring after January 1, 2008 (based on Copernicus data), wind farms installed after the fire event (even >12 years later) account for just 0,03% of the total burned area recorded between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2024. Notably, nearly 10,000 of fire events occur every year in the country.

These results confirm that there is no causal relationship between the occurrence of forest fires in an area and the subsequent installation of wind turbines.

📊 Moreover:

• Roads built for turbines have actively supported firefighting efforts during emergencies, while reforestation obligations for each new wind farm ensure ecological compensation for land use.
• By law, wind developers contribute 3% of their turnover to local communities. Between 2010–2023, this amounted to €301.6 million in benefits. Of this, €161.1 million was allocated directly to host municipalities, earmarked for environmental actions, local development, and social support programs

🔑 Key takeaway: Wind energy and forests can coexist. Wind power is not to blame for wildfires — it is part of the climate solution.

🙏 We thank Andreas Vlamakis, Ioanna Eleftheriou and Sevie Dima for the study and the poster

👉 You may see the poster HERE 

You may see more (in Greek) HERE