Wind Turbine Accidents: A Data Mining Study

Abstract

While the global production of wind energy is increasing, there exists a significant gap in the academic and practice literature regarding the analysis of wind turbine accidents. Our paper presents the results obtained from the analysis of 240 wind turbine accidents from around the world. The main focus of our paper is revealing the associations between several factors and deaths and injuries in wind turbine accidents. Specifically, the associations of death and injuries with the stage of the wind turbine's life cycle (transportation, construction, operation, and maintenance) and the main cause factor categories (human, system/equipment, and nature) were studied. To this end, we conducted a detailed investigation that integrates exploratory and statistical data analysis and data mining methods. The paper presents a multitude of insights regarding the accidents and discusses implications for wind turbine manufacturers, engineering and insurance companies, and government organizations.

Health effects of wind turbines in working environments – a scoping review

“…After removing duplicates, for the total scoping review, 9537 titles and abstracts as well as 182 full texts were screened. Finally, 20 publications were relevant for inclusion (22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41). For the title, abstract and fulltext screening of the initial MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL searches conducted on 1 February 2016, the proportion of observed agreement between the two reviewers was 0.97 and 0.90, and Cohen's kappa of 0.82 and 0.81, respectively, resulting in an almost perfect agreement for both screening phases.…”

“…Proportions of female workers varied between 0-45.1%. Of the 20 publications, 6 reported on the influence of substances used in rotor blade manufacturer companies on workers' health (27-32), 5 on (on-or offshore) wind turbine accidents (resulting in fatality or injury) (34,35,37,38,41), 4 on the influence of noise from onshore wind turbines on workers' health (22)(23)(24)40), 2 on medical incidents on offshore wind farms (33,36), 2 on musculoskeletal disorders among onshore wind technicians (26,39), and 1 on workers' health in coal-fired plants and wind power plants (25).…”

“…Another content analysis investigated attributes that predicted fatalities and injuries due to wind turbine accidents in on-and offshore settings (41). Fatalities were predicted by the wind turbine life cycle phase (with most fatalities occurring during construction and maintenance), the country, the setting (onshore or offshore), the power of a wind turbine, the month as well as the day of the accident, and the power of a wind farm.…”

“…Around one hundred fatal accidents in the surroundings of operating wind turbines occurring globally were reported, most of these probably affecting humans in working environments (37,38). Fatalities and injuries due to wind turbine accidents may be predicted by various attributes (eg, lifecycle phase, power of the wind turbine, or country) (41). Workers of wind power plants state to have better health and fewer occupational See column "study findings".…”

Text mining analysis of wind turbine accidents: An ontology-based framework

“…Other Internet sources contain significantly less data. To our best knowledge, there are no academic studies on mining data from wind turbine accidents, except [6]. The mentioned paper analyses tabularized data derived from wind turbine accident news, and does not apply any text mining techniques.…”