Contribution of Thunderstorm Warning Systems to reduce safety risks for human on wind turbines.

Abstract:
Thunderstorm Warning Systems (TWS) have become key elements for the protection of people in outdoor activities, on the condition that their performances can be justified in order to calculate their concrete contribution for each geographical location. The aim of this study is to calculate the effective gain of TWS on more than 100 wind farms based on methods described in international standards. The results obtained confirm their capacity to effectively reduce the safety risk for humans, particularly in areas of high thunderstorm activity where their combination with Lightning Protection Systems (LPS) enables to achieve a tolerable risk (RT).