FOCUS
Prevailing wind Carl Hunter and Scott Starr explain why fire suppression in wind turbines is so important and explore the challenges faced
generation becomes more reliant on renewable energy, wind power is increasingly important in the energy mix. With our reliance on wind turbines growing, keeping them fully operational and at reduced levels of risk is also more and more important, and consequently so is safety management. There are more than 340,000 wind turbines worldwide, yet the vast majority of turbines have no fi re suppression system installed. The fi res in wind turbines not only lead to a loss of business continuity and a negative impact on the company’s reputation, but also they are a critical safety issue. Possibly harmful debris can drift into the wind and there is also a signifi cant risk to human lives. When turbines are under construction, commissioned maintenance and repair, escape routes for operators are often long and vertical. A recent report found that three out of six incidents studied involved a human presence in the nacelle, the cover housing that houses all of the generating components including the generator, gearbox, drive train and brake assembly, and hence, a fire becomes a safety concern. In 2013, a crew of four engineers died in Ooltgensplaat, Netherlands, in a wind
W 20 SEPTEMBER 2018
www.frmjournal.com
IND POWER is an exciting emerging sector that needs those of us involved in fi re safety to get on board. As electricity
turbine fi re. This calls for improved review of fi re safety to minimise the risk to engineers. Fire is the second leading cause of accidents in wind turbines after blade failure1
.
Most wind farms are in remote locations and wind turbines are designed with the mechanical portion – where most fi res start – almost 300ft off the ground, at the top in the nacelle. There is simply no practical way to respond to a fi re in these units, meaning that when one occurs, the typical action is simply to wait for it to burn out.
Safety investment
With the average overall cost of a wind turbine fi re around $4.5m2
and given that $112.5bn was invested in wind power globally in 20163 , turbine
owners and authorities are increasingly seeing the prudence of investing in fi re suppression. Since 2011, there have been 36 large wind turbine fi re incidents reported in the mainstream media, although the actual number is much higher, with many smaller, less visible fi res going unreported. Most recently, in Wyoming, USA, last September, a wind turbine blaze caused a wildfi re that burned out nearly 1,600 acres. There are three main causes of wind turbine fi res: mechanical failure, electrical malfunction and
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