Investigation of possible societal risk associated with wind power generation systems

There is a progressive acceptance about the proposal of wind as an alternative source of energy to meet future global demand and significant reduction of environmental pollution. In this context, from design to decommission, safety doubtless represents an integral element of wind turbines. Based on historical accident data the quantitative risk measure of societal risk in connection with wind farms was evaluated in the present work. It was considered the CWIF database which contains information on accidents, incidents and fatalities related to wind technology from the 1970s to October 2011. The data were presented in its absolute values and normalized by the capacity of wind power installed worldwide over the years. The security level observed due to the wind turbine operation tends to increase with the increment of installed capacity. The social risk was calculated for two particular cases (characteristically arbitrary). As observed by the results (the curves in the F–N diagram) obtained for both scenarios, the risk does not exceed the upper limit of ALARP criterion. Nonetheless, the required application of principles for the integration of safety to tackle the hazards linked with wind turbines must not be neglected. Safety must be increased as the wind energy production expands, as well as there should be a need for regular reconsideration.