The offshore wind sector is truly remarkable, particularly with respect to its scale, international reach and growth potential. Yet it continues to offer challenges from a health and safety (H&S) perspective as we keep pace with its development and the introduction of new technologies, including floating wind and HVDC. As the incoming G+ Board Chair I’ve been able to take stock and consider where I feel we need to focus attention in the short to mid-term.

The size and scale of the sector is staggering. We currently have an installed base of some 64 GW of offshore wind across the globe and staff working over 60 million hours across development, construction and operational activities. With the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) predicting that there will be around 380 GW of renewable energy generation capacity in the next decade, it’s clear that G+ has a hugely important role to play, supporting our ambition of getting everyone working in the offshore wind sector ‘home safe’.

G+ has been in place for the last decade, is extremely well represented by industry players and has been highly influential with respect to H&S in that period. A number of key deliverables have been intrinsic to our success.

Quality data
Our incident data capture has improved year on year. We have been really well supported by our members and their data champions to ensure we have accurate data supplied, aligned to agreed classifications. This data has allowed us to focus on key topics, develop work streams and work through the issues at hand; that is, personnel transfer and welfare. It’s worth noting that G+ works across the development, construction and operational phases of an offshore wind farm lifecycle.

In 2022 we saw a significant increase in the number of hours worked, with 44.6 million hours worked, representing a 38% increase from the previous year. Despite this increase we were delighted to report that both the total recordable injury rate (TRIR) and lost time injury frequency (LTIF) have continued on a downward trajectory.

The TRIR, which measures the number of injuries per million hours worked, has fallen from 5.52 in 2016 to 2.82 in 2022. Similarly, the LTIF, which measures the frequency of injuries resulting in lost work time, has also decreased over the years, falling from 1.98 in 2016 to 1.03 in 2022. Overall, we are pleased with the progress we have made in improving safety practices over the years. The decreasing TRIR and LTIF rates are a testament to the effectiveness of our safety measures.

Also good news is that, compared to the 2021 data, there was a 69% decrease in the number of emergency response and medical evacuation incidents, from 62 in 2021 to 19 in 2022 which, given the increase in hours reported, is a very significant decrease. There is still more to be done, though. The data shows that there were 225 high potential incidents recorded in 2022, which is a 10% increase from the previous year.

Our incident data capture has improved year on year, we have been really well supported by our members and their data champions to ensure we have accurate data supplied, aligned to agreed classifications.

Published guidance
For some topics we have adopted a well-proven ‘safe-by-design’ process; this provides clear guidance for reference in the design phase of a wind farm, where we ensure we have the industry subject matter experts in the room. The output from these is published freely to help inform the sector. To date we have published 10 reports, covering topics such as marine transfer and floating offshore wind hazard identification.

In addition, we identify topics driven from the data and target mitigation via our good practice guidelines. To date we have published another 10 reports. A credit to the teams involved is that some of these guidance documents are now in their second or third revision.

Sharing lessons learned is very important; we need to avoid recurrence, so G+ utilises the Toolbox platform from the Energy Institute to ensure that we share key lessons. These can take the form of Toolbox talks, films and animations.

Coming back to the data, we have historically reported a year-on-year reduction in our sector’s total recordable injury rate, but this year the data has levelled out. We now need to get into the detail and fully understand what’s happening at the sharp end. With the support of the G+ Board, we have agreed to organise focus groups closer to the technicians to fully understand the day-to-day challenges they face, develop mitigation and continue to get our community home safely.

To ensure we are focused on our technicians, we have, for example, kicked off an innovation challenge, with the support of Siemens, relating to the size and weight of the bolts used to join tower sections. More innovation challenges will follow.

Global reach
Engagement has always been a core value for G+. To ensure we have the correct structure to enable success, we have formed three focus groups to lead on local engagement across the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific. We hold a stakeholder event annually to ensure we brief all interested parties, including regulators, on progress and key areas of focus; this is in addition to our formal AGM.

G+ will be launching its latest incident data report in June. I encourage everyone to take time to review and ensure they are fully informed on the current challenges the sector faces. Stay safe.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are strictly those of the author only and are not necessarily given or endorsed by or on behalf of the Energy Institute.

• Further reading: ‘Ensuring health and safety keeps pace with growth of the onshore wind sector’. Emma McIvor AMEI, Technical Manager at SafetyOn, a health and safety organisation that works through the Energy Institute to complement the work of G+ but is focused on the UK onshore wind sector, gives an update on the sector and the centrality of safe operations for the industry.
• Find out more about the concerted action that is underway to accelerate offshore wind development in the North Sea, where ambitious expansion plans need to address regulation and planning, technology innovation, declining government subsidy, grid connectivity issues and sustainability.