Killer Offshore Windparks – 3 Dead, 80 Serious Accidents “…More Have Died”

In terms of deaths, this is worse than Fukushima.

Yet, we never hear a peep from the media about the dark side of this “safe and environmentally gentle energy”. Imagine if this had happened at a nuclear power plant.

“Building offshore wind parks can be a deadly occupation. Three construction workers have already drowned whilst working on German projects in the North and Baltic Seas. 80 serious accidents have been registered, it was reported Sunday.

A total of three men, including a Polish worker and a Swedish diver have already lost their lives whilst working on offshore wind farms 120 kilometres off the East Frisian coast near Emden, reported the online edition of the Focus magazine on Sunday.

Both workers drowned while working on the BardOffshore wind farm.

Leader of the German Central Command for Maritime Emergencies Hans Werner Monsees told the magazine that only “a better and tighter rescue system” would prevent the number of deaths…” Continue reading…

Original story in FOCUS here, which adds (emphasis added):

The energy transition has had deadly consequences: According to FOCUS information, there have already been 80 serious accidents on German offshore wind park construction sites. Three men have been killed – and more have died.

More have died? How many? Seems nobody wants to tell us.

Of course any construction site is hazardous and deaths are inevitable. But what irks me is that for one industry it’s acceptable, but not for another (e.g. nuclear).

13 responses to “Killer Offshore Windparks – 3 Dead, 80 Serious Accidents “…More Have Died””

  1. Ed Caryl

    The difference? Drowning is bad, but death by radiation is horrible, horrible, horrible!
    /sarc off

    1. Casper

      A slow and painful death of a coal-miners would be better…

    2. DirkH

      None of the three dead in Fukushima have died from radiation. One was a crane driver, one died in an elevator, both during the earthquake, one died later during cleanup operations from a heart attack.

      1. Ed Caryl

        I know. But try explaining that to a Green.

      2. Beano

        Unfortunately Fukashima is a bad example.
        Fukashima could come back and bite everyone on the bum.
        It’s in a precarious position. Another largish earthquake in the area of Fukashima could cause some real problems.
        The situation at Fukashima is out of control. They have no idea how to fix the problems there.

        I’m no Green but after doing some research into Fukashima there really has to be some more research done to come up with better technology in Nuclear power generation. I believe that the Chinese are working very quickly on developing a meltdown proof type reactor.

        If you didn’t know. There are actually 14 reators in Japan suffering from Earthquke or Tsunami damage. Fukashima is the worst and most publicised.
        Fukashimas reactors I,II and III have sufffered complete meltdown – but that’s not the bad news -the fuel rod pools are the bad news.

        Deaths from radiation expousre due to nuclear power accidents are very hard to prove. Anybody who comes up with figures for this are deluding themsleves. The engineers and scientists who are remained at Chernobyl to try and clean up that mess have been exposed to massive doses of radiation – theyre still living.

        1. DirkH

          You’re a typical example. All your arguments are FUD. I notice that you haven’t used numbers, data, links to sources, you don’t even know what the Chinese are doing there (they’re building several Westinghouse 1 GW reactors; the nuclear Westinghouse business is a subsidiary of Toshiba).

          BTW, when the electric grid was rolled out there was also widespread resistance and irrational fear. Here’s FUD from 1900, new Hampshire:
          http://www.seacoastnh.com/Places_%26_Events/NH_History/Electricity_Sparks_Fears__in_1900?/
          “But to see the future, a local pundit informs me, one need only walk down Water Street at night where the incandescent
          glow of electrical lights beckon hapless sailors from across the Piscataqua to visit houses of adult entertainment. Vice
          and corruption, it seems, have deep pockets. Electricity is the new Jezebel, seducing our young men into the arms of immorality.

          1. Ed Caryl

            So it’s a moral issue!

  2. ArndB

    Don’t bother in case of a wind turbine at 60 meters height of fire, as happened the other day in Neukirchen/Heiligenhafen (north of Hamburg), see the impressive picture in Lübecker Nachrichten, 19/04/2012 at http://www.ln-online.de/lokales/ostholstein/3422498/brennende-windkraftanlage-in-neukirchen, as the fire brigade will arrive soon and can do little more than watching the full burn-out of the generator box and propellers. At sea it might take a bit more time.

    1. Bernd Felsche

      ARndB, I’ve borrowed the link an amended an article (http://contrary2belief.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/renewable-insomnia) that I wrote very recently on my own blog, illustrating the variable uselessness of such sources of energy.

      Also linked back to NTZ. 🙂

  3. Renewable Insomnia | contrary2belief

    […] offshore story is more devastating in human terms. NoTricksZone […]

  4. mwhite

    I wonder how these turbines would fair if the Baltic were to freeze over in the future.

  5. mwhite

    From the GWPF(Reuters)

    http://thegwpf.org/international-news/5536-germany-building-17-new-coal-29-new-gas-fired-power-stations.html

    “Germany Building 17 New Coal, 29 New Gas-Fired Power Stations”

    1. DirkH

      About time.

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