Industry journals have reported that five workers died while installing a Goldwind turbine, after a work platform collapsed. Articles say a damning report produced by the Local Authorities in the region blamed, ‘chaotic and ineffective management’ on the project, which was reportedly led by PowerChina and Shanghai Electric subsidiaries. Reports conclude that the release of the investigation findings resulted in multiple arrests.
Although China continues to burn more coal than anyone else, and the country is still opening coal fired power stations, they are also ramping up renewables. China is big into wind, racing ahead with wind power generation projects and leading the world in terms of wind turbine installation, developments, and electricity generation from wind.
UK Gov have ambitions to scale up wind farm development at a similar pace to China, but should these reported fatalities serve as a serious warning? We know that health and safety (H&S) regulations in China are a long way off those you would expect to be applied here in the UK and western Europe. Therefore, it might be argued that concerns about H&S in our domestic wind sector are unfounded. However, to consider this you should look at the H&S regulations that apply in the UK. To do that we looked at what the experts, the British Safety Council, (BSC) have to say.
In terms of regulations for the offshore wind sector the BSC tell us the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA) applies to wind turbine structures, while the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 (MSA) applies to all ships within the 12-mile territorial waters. BSC also tell us the MSA applies to UK registered vessels operating beyond the 12-mile limit. What the BSC do not tell us, is the HSWA and the MSA do not apply to foreign registered vessels working on wind farms beyond the 12-mile limit, and that is most support vessels, lift vessels, cable-lay vessels, accommodation vessels etc. While the BSC do not touch on foreign registration, they sum up H&S by saying;
“The HSWA will apply to the offshore wind turbine structure and the workers aboard it, but the MSA will apply to the ships and their crews. There’s no doubt this can create confusion, especially where there are combined operations involving both the structure and at least one ship. And where there’s confusion, there’s a potential health and safety risk.”
We entirely agree with the BSC – where confusion exists there is inevitably greater risk and this increases with combined operations. We would suggest the risk for confusion across combined operations is greater where vessels are NOT covered by H&S regulation. Potentially, risk can increase further where pressure is applied to meet time targets. The report from China blamed chaotic and ineffective management for the five fatalities. In the UK offshore sector, where the drive to scale up is relentless, sections of operations and their management are completely unregulated!
This must be a cause for concern!
More information is available on our health and safety page
RMT Offshore Energy Branch
Published online (April 2025)
