Work Safety

"We share the German government's desire to speed up offshore expansion and consider the new goals to be absolutely correct and necessary. Against this background, it is particularly important that we think about the topic of rescue infrastructure and occupational safety in the offshore wind industry at an early stage," BWO CEO Sven Utermöhlen opens the BWO event Occupational safety and climate protection yesterday Tuesday.

The current regulations - especially as far as the rescue is concerned - do not do justice to the new expansion goals. Because in addition to emergencies in and around offshore wind farms, the rescue service providers in the industry have also been taking on other rescue flights in the German foreign trade zone (AWZ) for years. To date, neither the division of costs nor the division of tasks have been clearly regulated. 

The coastal states also want clear responsibilities: “What we have created to date is great. But what we have to achieve by 2030 and 2040 is another huge task and it's not enough to say we have an established administrative practice, we need clear regulations. And these regulations must be legally secure," explains Lower Saxony's Environment Minister Olaf Lies in his video message.

In just over a decade, the offshore wind industry has succeeded in creating a high-quality and internationally outstanding offshore rescue infrastructure in the EEZ. This must also be maintained in the long term. The BWO therefore demands that the federal government fulfill its obligations and create a federal rescue service law for the AWZ.

Against this background, high-ranking representatives from politics, the security industry and the offshore wind industry discussed online yesterday, Tuesday, how offshore rescue can be reconciled with the new expansion goals.

"With the event we have set a common sign," comments BWO Managing Director Stefan Thimm. “The industry is aware of its responsibility and will continue to participate in offshore rescue in the future. But a clear political framework is needed so that the acceleration of expansion does not come at the expense of occupational safety.”