During the Action's lifetime a lot of photos have been collected and several photo competitions have been conducted:

1. 2018: "Let the Action Flyer travel"

1 place flyerWinner: David Miller2nd place flyer

Location: Aberdeen / Scotland / UK
Description: RELY Portuguese flyer on Scottish turbine

2nd place: Sina Roehner

Location: Swabian Alb / Germany
Description: Art on the clothesline by artists Sylvia Catarina Nickus and Klaus-Thomas Brandstetter

3rd place: Maria

3rd place flyer

Bostenaru Dan

Location: Vienna / Austria
Description: Windmills at the Danube River

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2. 2018: "Reflections"

Winner: Béla M1 place reflections sunkácsy

Location: Denmark.
Description: The area in the picture is one of the windiest parts of the country, called Thy. It have not been installed big wind farms for 11 years here, as the local
communities prefer smaller turbines and community based solutions. The tendency of growing turbines and increasing prices is not consistent with the local interest.
The turbines in the picture are the rare bigger ones.2nd place reflections

2nd place: Marina Mihaila

Location: Romania, Dobrogea
Description: Architecture exploration of Dobrogea. Energy landscape, wind energy.

3rd pla3rd place reflectionsce: Maria Bostanaru Dan, Place: Leiden, the Netherlands, and Bruges, Belgium.
Description: CHAPTERS VIII-IX: Of the Good Fortune Which the Valiant Don Quixote Had in the Terrible and Undreamt-of Adventure of the Windmills, with Other Occurrences Worthy to Be Fitly Recorded,
Including the Terrible Battle Between The Gallant Biscayan and The Valiant Manchegan. WHEN they had traveled a few miles they suddenly saw thirty or forty windmills
scattered over a plain. Don Quixote pulled in his horse, his eyes staring out of their sockets.
"Look, friend Sancho Panza!" he exclaimed. "Thirty or more monstrous giants present themselves! I mean to engage them all in battle and slay them; for this is righteous warfare. It is serving God to sweep so evil a breed from off the face of the earth!"What giants?" asked Sancho curiously. "Those with the long arms," replied Don Quixote. "But, your worship," said Sancho, "those are not giants but windmills, and what seem to be their arms are the sails that make the millstones go." Hearing his squire make such a foolish remark, Don Quixote could not quite make up his mind whether it was through ignorance, inexperience in the pursuit of adventure, or cowardice, that he spoke like that. So he suggested Sancho would better stay away and pray while he, Don Quixote, fought the giants single-handed. The honor of conquering in such an unequal combat would be so much greater for him, he thought, if he won victory all by himself. Don Quixote made ready for the attack by commending himself to his Lady Dulcinea, and then he gave the spur to Rocinante in spite of the pleas and outcries of Sancho Panza.
Just at this moment a breeze began to blow and the sails of the windmills commenced to move. The knight charged at his hack's fullest gallop, drove his spear with such force into one of the sails that the spear was shattered to pieces while the poor knight fell over the pommel of his saddle, head over heels in the air, and Rocinante fell stunned to the ground. There they rolled together on the plain, in a battered and bruised condition.
Sancho hurried to his master's side as fast as his donkey could carry him. He was worried beyond words, for he expected to find Don Quixote well nigh dead, and he was not bent on giving up all hopes of governing an island, at so early a stage. The misguided knight was unable to move. Nevertheless Sancho Panza could not resist the impulse to reprimand his master. "Did I not tell your worship so!" he admonished. But Don Quixote would hear nothing, answering in a sportsmanlike fashion: "Hush, friend Sancho! The fortunes of war fluctuate, that's all." And then he added his suspicion that the same Sage Friston, the magician who had carried off his room of books, had turned the giants into windmills so that he would be unable to boast of having conquered them—all out of sheer envy and thirst for vengeance. What he most bewailed, however, was the loss of his lance. "

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3. 2017: "Photographs of renewable energy landscapes combined with an expressive phrase which could come from poetry, literature, famous quotations, proverbs or everyday sayings."

 NajaMarot 1st price competitionWinner: Naja Marot

"I was born free, and that I might live in freedom I chose the solitude of the fields;
in the trees of the mountains I find society,
the clear waters of the brooks are my mirrors,
and to the trees and waters I make known my thoughts and charms."
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote

2nd Place: Stephanie2nd place poems Müller

"Everything you can imagine is real. (Pablo Picasso)
In local conflicts about renewable energy planning it often happens that imagination about a certain reality is dominating the discourse. These pictures have been taken at Raheenlwagh Windfarm (Wicklow, Ireland) during a summer school excursion of COST/ RELY action in August 2016. It was a misty day, thus the sight was very limited: Just a few seconds the wind mill(s) have been visible in order to get covered just seconds later.
Our duty as scientists is to uncover this reality. However, social realities are as diverse as there are cases. Maybe we should accept these instead of claiming to have discovered the truth (e. g. NIMBY-discourse). Otherwise, we may cover the local, place-based realities – which are the most important for the people and their particular places.

3rd place poems3rd Place: Naja Marot

Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf, So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day - Nothing gold can stay.
Robert Frost: Nothing gold can stay


4. 2017: "Most unlikely place for Renewable Energies"

20170720 140008 Kruse Albania sWinner: Alexandra Kruse

I found this Solar Panel at the rooftop of a small café in the Albanian Alps at approximately 1500 m
altitude (ca. 42°24'29.5"N 19°47'59.2"E 42.408205, 19.799790). The café was installed at the last
spring at this side of the pass on the hiking trail, connecting Valbona and Thethi. The location itself
can only be accessed by hiking, with horses or donkeys. The only guests are hikers. The next village
(Thethi) is appr. 5 km away.

Information on call 3 and 4: here


Photo Database

The photo database shall contain the photos taken during the various project activities carried out from Portugal to Hungary, and from Greece to Iceland. Some hundred photos have been chosen in all, representing a new reality of European Energy Landscapes, considering also the aspect of landscape quality. It is organised by country and by topic.

  • Different renewable energy sources and systems
  • Different influences towards landscape quality

The photo database, as well as the COST RELY Glossary on Renewable Energy and Landscape Quality shall enable people with different regional and thematic backgrounds to speak a common language by having a common understanding of terms used and topics discussed. Therefore all photos and definictions are for public use via the Action homepage. Please don't forget to indicate the name of the photographers and to reference COST RELY as source.

Countries in alphabetical order (click on the letters for choice)

 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Themes in alphabetical order (click on the letters for choice)

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

The database is under construction

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