Accidents & Safety
I’ve been concerned about safely working with wind energy since 1976 when I nearly killed myself taking down a 1930s-era windcharger. While wind energy is an environmentally beneficial technology–and that’s the reason we need to use it–it can and has killed. Consequently, I’ve been tracking fatal accidents in wind energy since I wrote an obituary for a colleague, Terry Mehrkam, in 1981. For this reason, my books on wind energy have always included a section on safety.
What instances of attempted murder or significant violence have occurred against wind industry personnel?
By
Michael Barnard
Recently a Dutch wind farm developer’s home was firebombed. Dutch Wind Developer Fire Bombed What other instances of violence against wind industry staff have occurred?
Dutch Wind Developer Fire Bombed
By
Paul Gipe
Sometime around midnight 10-11 April the home of Bob Jans was firebombed in Assen, the Netherlands. Both Jans and his wife were home, asleep at the time.
Police probe Whitelee fatality
By
Investigators are looking into the possibility that the man may have taken his own life, it is understood.
Kilgallioch wind farm accident death worker identified
By
Police have identified a worker who died in an accident on a wind farm site in the south of Scotland.
Balfour Beatty fined £2.6m following death of Heysham wind farm worker
By
James Sim, 32, was working in a trench laying ducting for new cable for an offshore wind farm being built off the coast at Heysham in April 2010.
DK reopens diver death case
By
Danish authorities are to re-open an investigation into a diver’s death while working on an offshore wind farm in the German North Sea.
Man (20s) killed while clearing trees as part of wind farm extension project
By
Adam Cullen
It is understood that the man had been working on the €145m Meenadreen wind farm extension project when the tragedy occurred.
Two companies fined after death of wind turbine technician
By
Health & Safety Executive
It was during this process that Colin Sinclair’s harness became entangled in the high-speed shaft coupling, causing him to be pulled in towards the shaft.
Worker from Invenergy wind project dies
By
A construction worker was killed in an accident Wednesday morning near Invenergy’s 73.5MW Prairie Breeze 2 wind project under construction in Nebraska.
Crop dusting at Capital Wind Farm
By
Infigen
A farmer at the Capital Wind Farm recorded this video and sent it to us – it demonstrates a crop dusting aircraft flying among turbine
Tower Climbing Safety
- Ellis Fall Safety Solutions (fallsafety.com)
- Introduction to Fall Protection, Fifth Edition, Print/Digial Bundle, American Society of Safety Engineers by J. Nigel Ellis, Ph.D., CSP, P.E., CPE
- Before Climbing That Tower by Mick Sagrillo; a checklist before climbing a guyed-lattice tower to perform an inspection of a small wind turbine.
- Draft Best Practices in Small Wind: Tower Climbing Safety by Mick Sagrillo; background on the Tower Climbing Safety document developed by the Small Wind Conference and small wind turbine installation professionals.
- RenewablesUK (Great Britain): Working at Height and Rescue–Wind Turbines Standard
Safety
In 2013 I pulled together some links to documents on safety relative to the wind industry. These topics went beyond simply tower climbing safety and safety at height and included work around rotating machinery and other common industrial hazards. Unfortunately, the industry has changed dramatically in the past decade. Most safety documents once freely available are now securely hidden by paywalls. Moreover, even the wind energy trade associations where these documents were once located have ceased to exist, merging with other renewable trade associations. Some of the British documents are still available and I’ve provide links to them. I found one public document on the off shore industry in the USA.
Europe
Great Britain
- RenewableUK: Health & Safety
- Training (for members only)
- Wind Turbine Safety Rules
North America
USA
Contact the Clean Power Association.
Worker Health and Safety on Offshore Wind Farms, Transportation Research Board, 2012.
Canada
Contact the Canadian Renewable Energy Association.
Mortal Accident Summary
I no longer actively track deaths in the wind industry. However, I will update my data as it becomes available. Below is a presentation updating my statistics to 2020. Also below is a link to the original article. For a complete analysis see Chapter 17 in my most recent book Wind Energy for the Rest of Us.
- Wind—the Breath of Life or the Kiss of Death: Analysis of Wind Energy Fatalities, 15 April 2021. Presentation to Winterwind 2021 21 April on a Comparison of Wind’s Fatalities to that of Other Industries.
- Wind Energy — The Breath of Life or the Kiss of Death: Contemporary Wind Mortality Rates, 6 December 2012 update. The original article appeared in the fall of 2001.
Note that the spreadsheet has six tabs. This is only the summary page and does not include all the data on the summary page.
My Deaths Database is publicly available. Simply ask for it.
