Furling has been demonstrated to allow for reliable designs withstanding two decades or more of operation; however, the trade-offs are considerable, including a sharp drop-off of the output power after the onset of furling, hysteresis between the operational curves for increasing and decreasing wind speeds, respectively, and a quite complex aerodynamic state during furling, particularly in a highly turbulent environment, typically encountered by small wind turbines. Furling will not be discussed in the current paper; the interested reader is referred to [11; 12] for an introduction. Independent of the regulation scheme selected, fatigue loading is always a major factor for wind turbine life, particularly the rotor blades. Fatigue loading arises as a combination of the stochastic nature of the wind field impinging on the rotor and rotational sampling [13] caused by the finite spatial coherence of the wind field. Excessive fatigue loads lead to a reduction in the blade life and increase maintenance costs and financial losses [14], making a careful design for fatigue an important part of the (small) wind turbine design process. Given that fatigue loading is a major concern in wind turbines, a large body of literature exists on the subject, with an emphasis on utility-scale turbines. While much of the knowledge on fatigue damage in wind turbine blades has been generated by testing, both of the composite materials commonly used [15; 16] and of components and systems, design procedures based on a combination of simulations and standards are becoming more common. This is particularly important in the field of small wind turbines where extensive testing is not cost effective for manufacturers. [PERSON] et al. [17] used load cases for power production and parked turbines recommended in the IEC 61400-1 standard [18] for the fatigue life assessment of a blade designed for a 5-MW wind turbine; their approach considers a combination of aeroelastic simulation tools such as FAST and HAWC2 for the generation of fatigue loading and fatigue assessment tools developed by the authors. As in most works, the Palmgren-Miner (PM) rule is used for cumulative damage calculation and the Goodman method for computing the allowed load cycle number, and the rainflow method is applied to determine the number of events with a given combination of mean stress and stress range. A similar approach was used by [PERSON] et al. [19], who also studied the fatigue life of the blade of a 5-MW wind turbine. [PERSON] et al. [20], as part of an effort to design a 750-kW wind turbine in South Korea, developed a simplified fatigue design procedure, using empirical formulae for fatigue loading in combination with results from materials testing; Goodman diagrams obtained from laboratory testing and the PM rule were then used to calculate the expected fatigue life. The work in [16] presented common methods for calculating damage on the blades. The most common method is the Palmgren-Miner (PM) rule [21], in which, if the damage parameter, \(D\), reaches the value of one, the existence of damage is concluded. Currently, there are several other methods, which are variations of the PM rule, such as the Marco-Starkey rule [22]. Currently, standardized methods for estimating the fatigue life of wind turbine rotors are available [23], providing the designer with a simplified conceptual framework useful for practical design decisions. As discussed by [PERSON] et al. [24], the small wind turbine standard IEC-61400-2 [23] contemplates three possible methods for fatigue life assessment, one based on operational measurements, another using aeroelastic simulations, and, finally, a simplified procedure to be used by designers and small wind turbine manufacturers without access to sophisticated aeroelastic modeling tools. [PERSON] et al. found that the simplified procedure in their study case produced extremely conservative results, leading to blade designs that are likely not cost-effective.