A turbine going up in flames, its blades spinning through clouds of smoke — this image is used by anti-wind campaigners for a reason. Fires still attract major media attention and give local stakeholders pause when considering allowing a wind farm to be built on their land, near businesses and communities.

So far, the wind industry has shied away from openly discussing fire to avoid bringing attention to these low-frequency, high-cost events, and has for the most part convinced itself that the reputational risk of open discussions outweighs the potential benefits of transparency.