Wind turbine fires and associated downtime will cost a project owner a total of $4.5m on average, according to a new report from GCube Underwriting.
The report Towering Inferno is the latest in a series of reports for GCube’s insured and broker community, analysing the root causes, impact and mitigation of wind turbine downtime events.
It said that despite the increasing use of fire suppression throughout the industry, turbine fire incidents typically result in the total or near-total loss of a multi-million dollar asset.
This financial impact is exacerbated by long-term reputational damage, not only leading to strained relationships with investors and OEMs, but also affecting public perception of safety and reliability standards in the industry at large.
The report highlighted that, while the 300,000-strong international fleet of wind turbines sees just 50 turbine fires each year, media scrutiny has resulted in a disproportionate amount of negative national and international news coverage.
The report includes a breakdown of the internal and external root causes of a turbine fire – from lightning to human error – suggestions for best-practice deployment of both passive and active mitigation measures, and interviews with claims specialist Renewable Energy Loss Adjusters (RELA) and fire suppression expert Firetrace International.
GCube head of business development and author of Towering Inferno Jatin Sharma, said: “While the vast majority of renewable energy losses escape the attention of the international media, it seems that, every few weeks, a turbine fire makes the headlines.
“For the owners, operators and insurers of wind farms, the thought of seeing a multi-million dollar asset go up in flames is already a sobering one. For the incident to subsequently be broadcast around the world is the stuff of nightmares.
“Faced with this increased scrutiny, and the long-term financial impact of a total turbine loss, we need to address the causes and consequences of turbine fire and, as a community, recognise that it affects each company in the industry rather than ‘affecting our competitors’.
“We cannot allow a handful of torched assets to become a symbol of our inability to work together.”
Image: wind turbine fire at Groß Eilstorf wind farm (International Association for Fire Safety Science)
