With leading wind industry players already preparing to invest millions of dollars in becoming OSHA compliant, O&M is primed to become a US$5 billion sector within the wind industry.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) once again turned its attention to the wind industry in 2009, raising concerns that existing safety standards may soon come under scrutiny.

While no national metrics currently exist for the wind industry, this will likely change.The pending legislation will directly impact operations and maintenance (O&M) technicians in the wind energy sector.

For those unprepared, regulatory oversight could have significant financial ramifications.

 “A wind project with a poor safety program will show poor financial productivity”, cautions Mike Fisher, VP Operations at Wood Group GTS – Renewables.

“The wind industry in the US is coming under increasing scrutiny from OSHA and other regulatory bodies. Now is the time to ensure that HSE is engrained within your operation thereby increasing staff retention, morale and productivity,” he adds.

Leveraging its extensive background in HSE issues within the oil and gas sector, the Wood Group has tailored its valuable, specialist knowledge to address the needs of the wind industry.

Fisher is speaking at the 2nd Wind Energy Operations and Maintenance Summit and will be joined by Iberdrola Renewables, Duke Energy, AES Wind Generation, Cielo Wind Power, GE Energy, Vestas Americas, Suzlon and over 200 of the world’s leading wind energy O&M professionals on April 20-21 in Dallas.

This timely O&M conference will focus on steps to recruiting and training rapid response teams and how to build successful O&M strategies to ensure operational excellence and deliver positive growth for wind farms across North America.

For further information regarding this Wind O&M event view the website: http://www.windenergyupdate.com/info/194

Jon Harman

Director

Wind Energy Update

t. +44 207 375 7577

e. jon@windenergyupdate.com

Wind Energy Update provides news, events and analysis to the wind energy industry