The inaugural meeting of the BWEA took place on 17 November 1978 at the Rutherford Laboratory with Peter Musgrove of Reading University as chairman.
[citation needed] In 2004 the British Wind Energy Association expanded its remit to include wave and tidal energy, and to use the Association's experience to guide these technologies along the same path to commercialisation.
In December 2009, to reflect this expansion in the industries it represented, members resolved to adopt the new name of RenewableUK.
[2] In 2008 the then BWEA was found by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to have overstated the carbon dioxide emissions displaced by wind generation.
The BWEA and its members had claimed a value of 860 grams per kilowatt hour but the ASA found this was exaggerated by 100% and ordered the BWEA to reduce the figure to 430 grams.