http://www.wind-works.org/articles/BreathLife.html

Wind Energy -- The Breath of Life or the Kiss of Death: Contemporary Wind Mortality Rates

by Paul Gipe

An edited version of this article appeared in the Vol. 14 No. 4 – Autumn 2001 edition of WindStats Newsletter. Statistics on the number of deaths in the industry have been updated to fall 2009 and are reflected in the database. The article has not been changed in response to the new data.

(excerpts)

In the mid-1990s, 14 men had been killed on wind turbines or working with wind energy. Since then six more have died, including the first member of the public, a parachutist who literally flew into a turbine in Germany.

One half of the deaths have occurred on or around turbines of the size typically installed during the great California wind boom of the mid-1980s. Still, 7 have been killed working with larger turbines.

Tragically, at least 3 people have been killed working with small turbines. These deaths dramatically skew the mortality rate because small turbines account for a minuscule amount of worldwide wind generation.

The preponderance of those killed worldwide were Americans; 12 U.S. citizens, and one Canadian. Germany, despite the phenomenal growth of it wind industry since 1990, has one of the lowest mortality rates of the four nations where deaths have occurred, 0.07 deaths per TWh.

The German rate includes the parachutist who, in her first unassisted jump, hit a wind turbine on the island of Fehmarn. In doing so she became the first women killed by wind energy and the first member of the public killed. However, it's important to note that though she was a member of the public, she was not a passerby, such as a person who walks or drives by a wind turbine. Her death is more akin to that of a suicide from a jump off a bridge or tall building. (This is a critical distinction. In the two decades I've tracked this data, no passerby has been injured by wind energy.)

The mortality rate in the USA, where all 13 deaths in North America occurred, is twice that of the international average. As is the mortality rate in the Netherlands.

How does wind's mortality rate compare with that from other energy sources? Unfortunately, there is no simple answer. Part of the problem is that statistics on mortality rates for the full fuel cycle of coal, for example, are not readily available. And where available they use different units. Yet, it appears that the current mortality rate of wind energy of 0.15 deaths per TWh is roughly equivalent to that of mining, processing, and burning of coal to generate electricity according to some researchers. (This data doesn't include increases in mortality from the air pollution that results from burning coal.) Data from other researchers indicates that wind's mortality rate is about half that for the occupational mortality rate for coal.

The data clearly indicates that the wind industry will have to do a better job at improving safety if it wants to live up to its promise of being clean, green, and--benign.

Wrong again, sorry. We have some lovely consolation prizes. Your "many many" is <3%.

It looks like the Advertising Standards Agency do have teeth after all

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7061162.ece


TWO government advertisements that use nursery rhymes to warn people of the dangers of climate change have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for exaggerating the potential harm.

The adverts, commissioned by Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, used the rhymes to suggest that Britain faces an inevitable increase in storms, floods and heat waves unless greenhouse gas emissions are brought under control.

The ASA has ruled that the claims made in the newspaper adverts were not supported by solid science and has told the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) that they should not be published again.

It has also referred a television commercial to the broadcast regulator, Ofcom, for potentially breaching a prohibition on political advertising.


To paraphrase the ASA

Please stop the propaganda and fearmongering Mr Miliband

(n.b. "the claims made in the newspaper adverts were not supported by solid science")

Once again, DA, you quote politics not science. We are all awaiting your revelations regarding the science. Waiting....................

Posted something similar a few weeks ago.

Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (Hardcover)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596916109?i...p;creativeASIN=1596916109