By Sam Phipps in Edinburgh

With 11 fatalities and the threat of environmental and economic catastrophe from the Deep Horizon disaster rising daily, it might seem an odd time to suggest taking health and safety lessons from the oil and gas industry.

However, analysts say turbine operators and contractors could emulate the hydrocarbons sector in terms of project planning and transparency, as well as specific areas including more focus on ergonomics.

By taking a more proactive approach to health and safety, on which its record is still generally impressive, offshore wind can help further its own expansion and pre-empt the need for excessive regulation.

“If you look at the oil and gas business overall, you will find safety as the overriding area of attention, whether it’s operations, construction or design,” says Huub den Rooijen, director of renewable energy consultancy PMSS in the Netherlands.

“There’s also a high degree of transparency, among operators, contractors or investors. I find this is less common in offshore wind.”

Accidental regulation

However, den Rooijen admits it is precisely the likes of the Deep Horizon rig explosion off the Louisiana coast, and subsequent spewing of thousands of tonnes of oil into the sea, that have driven oil regulation and safety procedures in the last 25 years or so.

The intrinsic dangers of that industry – toxic, highly flammable substances, high-pressure gases, deepwater pipes  – are obviously more acute than anything found in the wind sector.

“All the ingredients for disaster, whether it’s fires or structure collapses, are there. The oil industry has to manage all these hazards. It actually has quite a successful track record but sometimes it goes horribly wrong, and an instance like this [Deep Horizon] almost defines the industry in the public mind,” he says.

Though it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to envisage an offshore wind plant being involved in an event of that magnitude in terms of loss of life or injury – and out of the question in terms of ecological catastrophe – the message among analysts is: complacency is dangerous.

Tough workplace

Moreover, certain aspects of the working environment for offshore wind carry greater risks than those associated with oil and gas. Engineers typically must step onto the turbine out of small boats, instead of landing on a big platform by helicopter. The physical demands in this respect are far higher.

“The ergonomics of the wind turbine, the operating environment, have not received enough attention,” den Rooijen says. “People recognise that but there’s still a lot of improvement to be made.”

Access to the turbine, getting through the entrance door and into the nacelle, using access lifts to ascend the inside of the tower – these are all areas of possible variation and contention. Last year, for instance, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) wrote to the British Wind Energy Association with concerns about standards for access lifts because they did not always provide adequate protection, such as interlocked landing gates.

The long term solution, Nick Summers of HSE wrote, was to design a wind turbine with an integral lift fully meeting the requirements of the Machinery Directive to a harmonised standard that covered lifts serving fixed landings in wind turbines and similar structures.

“However, we clearly must accept that both such a design and the development and approval of the necessary standard will not occur in the medium term,” he concluded.

Benefits of conformity

Many in the industry agree that greater standardisation is the way ahead, not just in working procedures, but also in some aspects of design. How turbines are accessed varies hugely from project to project even though superficially they may look the same.

Though most people in the sector acknowledge that health and safety issues top the agenda, when it comes to implementation there is a lot to do before it is sufficiently safe and worker-friendly for the industry to expand in the way envisaged.

Fiona Gow, a renewable energy consultant in Glasgow, says self-regulation is key. “If we can prove we’re serious about safety, then that’s the best way to build support and progress as an industry. We need to develop best practice and regulate ourselves, otherwise government will step in and do it – only in a more cumbersome manner.”

Den Rooijen concurs: “There’s an awful lot we can all learn from one another in health and safety. Only by helping each other be successful can we help the industry overall be successful. Often the improvement is in the details.”

To respond to this article, please write to:

Sam Phipps: samcphipps@yahoo.co.uk

Or write to the editor:

Rikki Stancich: rstancich@gmail.com