Back draught - the need for continuous improvement in the Wind Energy Industry

Renewable energy and in particular wind energy has seen a rapid increase in deployment within the past decade to meet the UK’s renewable energy targets. Within Scotland there has an exponential increase in renewable energy projects accounting for 61% of proposed and installed UK onshore wind farms. Onshore wind farms have also contributed to economic prosperity providing 8,600 jobs yielding £548 million in GVA. However critics claim that wind farms are not labour intensive and jobs are subsidised at a cost of £100,000 per job created. Therefore economic benefits can appear to be illusory are in spite of reductions in fossil use in the energy supply grid. The question can be asked is the wind energy revolution truly sustainable.

Although the economic costs are readily disclosed and debated in the public however the hidden cost of wind energy accidents is suppressed by the industry and externalised at times by environmental champions. Caithness Wind Farm Information Forum  an advocacy group that campaigns against wind turbines categorise wind sector accidents as Fatal accidents, Human injury, Human health, Blade failure, Fire, Structural accidents, Ice throw, Transport, Environmental damage and other miscellaneous events e.g. lightning strikes, electrical failure.
During the period 2009 – 2011 over 1500 accidents were admitted to have occurred within the wind energy sector highlighting the need for improved non-financial risk management.

Aside from the rapid expansion of the industry into offshore areas one of the root causes of the increase in accidents is the absence of industry wide standards for quality, safety and environmental management and a desire by the wind industry to value the guarantee confidentiality in regards to incident and accident reporting above organisational transparency (Fig 1). 

The UK’s Health and Safety Executive has been reticent to impose a minimum safe distance between wind turbine developments and occupied buildings and presently does not maintain a database of wind turbine failures making accident trend analysis nearly impossible. At an operational level fire brigades are at times ill-equipped to deal with wind turbine fires as working heights can be more than 80 metres. Wind farms have also accounted for the deaths of endangered birds and bats exacting an environmental toll despite the carbon friendliness of wind energy.

Within this context the Wind Industry must begin the process of standards development in consultation with all stakeholders i.e. government, NGOs and businesses to ensure that environmental claims can be substantiated and more importantly continuous improvement is embedded within the sector.