A wind turbine is a machine or invention that helps with the generation of electricity through greener methods. Wind turbines are usually placed in higher mountains or areas where there is no human population. As wind turbines have continued to be used widely, they have been said to cause harm or undermine the safety of human beings in the area. It is important to consider that wind turbine safety is an important part of the installation and maintenance of the wind turbines themselves. Wind turbines have very large contraptions that are placed high above and no person is expected to go there. However, wind turbines have been attributed to a lot of human catastrophes and have caused harm in isolated cases. However, in this article, we shall discuss the importance of wind turbine safety and how to ensure that there is wind turbine safety.
The safety in wind turbines is maintained when there are normal weather conditions. However, the lack of safety can be castigated by hazardous weather, working at heights, and they are also a potential for fires. If wind turbines are placed in the same place where High voltage wires pass through then they pose a safety hazard. Wind turbines are also a natural target for lightning strikes during rainstorms. The big question remains why we should uphold wind turbine safety.
The first main reason to uphold wind turbine safety is to prevent human casualties as well as animal casualties. It is of utmost importance that death in both humans and animals is prevented even though the turbines are in place to help in electricity generation. Since wind turbines are placed where there are hills and valleys and mainly vegetation, it is reasonable to assume that there is wildlife in those areas. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that the people installing the wind turbines consider these animals and install them far away from where the wildlife is densely populated.
Installing wind turbines far away from life, animal or human is a way to curb human and animal casualties. In order to control human casualties, regulations and policies can be put in place to ensure that the interaction with the area where the turbines are placed is limited to a certain number of humans at a time. This can be done by imposing laws or charges in order to enter the area. It becomes easier for authorities to control a small number of people while they are hiking or conducting picnics in the area rather than a huge number of people. This has been used to control the human population in various countries where they have wind turbines.
In case there is an injury even after all these measures have been put in place, the relevant authorities should have a compensation fund for the people who are affected. the compensation fund should apply to both workers and visitors to the area if possible. This will help them cope with injuries that they may encounter while they are visiting the area.
In as much as wind turbines may pose a certain level of danger, with the right control measures they can be used effectively to produce environment-friendly energy.