Health and safety in the offshore renewable-energy industry will be under the spotlight when international experts attend a conference in Aberdeen this week.
Maritime, shipping and legal experts will discuss how offshore renewable safety can be improved and accident levels reduced.
Bruce Craig, partner and leading offshore health and safety expert at law firm Pinsent Masons, will address delegates on how to ensure crew safety during offshore windfarm operations and focus on risk management to avoid potentially dangerous situations.
Mr Craig said: “As a relatively new industry, offshore wind and renewables in general can learn a lot from the hard-earned experiences of the oil and gas industry.
“It can take oil and gas best practice and the lessons learned from past tragedies to ensure health and safety practices in offshore wind are beyond reproach.”
He added: “I’ve been involved in many incident investigations when the basic problem was that something changed from the original plan, but the risks that change brought were not properly assessed – sadly resulting in an accident.
“Where things don’t go quite to the original plan and the plans change mid-job, the management of change is often not considered properly.
“Offshore wind may not have the same industrial scale as offshore oil and gas operations, but the potential risk to health and safety are high and we all have a part to play in making sure the industry is as safe as possible.”
The Operating Specialist Wind Vessels Summit is being held at Norwood Hall Hotel on Wednesday and Thursday.
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