Wind
Electricity from onshore and offshore wind turbines.
At this rate, one death corresponds to about 1.9 million–7.5 million people's annual electricity.
Deaths per terawatt-hour
This scale is logarithmic: each step to the right is ten times the previous one, so the visual distance understates how much larger the fossil numbers really are.
counted deaths · modeled deaths
The small grey figure under each source is the same rate turned human: roughly how many people’s yearly electricity corresponds to one death. Coal, about 700–6,000 people; solar, a few million.
The figures as a table
| Source | Low | High | Modeled | 1 death per |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wind | 0.02 | 0.08 | 25% | 1.9M–7.5M people |
Deaths
0.02–0.08 deaths/TWh
Our World in Data, What are the safest and cleanest sources of energy?CO₂
7–56 gCO₂eq/kWh
IPCC AR5 WGIII Annex III lifecycle emissions mediansLand
6.2–62 km²/TWh/yr
Central is total wind-farm area including turbine spacing; direct land occupation is about 10% of that area and is stored as the low figure.
Van Zalk & Behrens 2018, spatial extent of energy generationCost
27–73 USD/MWh
Lazard LCOE+ 2026, version 19.0The uncounted cost — priced at the central value of a statistical life ($14.1M), Wind's death toll is worth about $0.56 per MWh generated — against a market price of $50/MWh. That cost is on no electricity bill. Value of a life →
How it kills
Almost entirely through occupational accidents during construction and maintenance — falls from turbine height and road transport incidents. There is no combustion and no pollution term.
What dominates the number
Installation and maintenance accidents dominate. Manufacturing supply-chain risk is a smaller modeled contribution.
What the estimate does not capture
Site conditions, country-specific controls, labor practices, reliability, storage, and long-tail waste questions are outside this coefficient.