Claire Campbellll, Brodies LLP
The UK’s transition towards net zero is reshaping the energy sector at pace. Offshore wind capacity continues to expand rapidly, hydrogen projects are moving from concept to early deployment, and large scale solar and battery installations are becoming increasingly common across the country.
While this transition is essential to meeting the UK’s climate and energy security targets, it is also changing the risk profile of the energy sector. New technologies, operating models and workforce arrangements are introducing health and safety challenges that may not always sit comfortably within existing, well-established risk controls and operating procedures.
Many of the UK energy sector’s existing safety systems were designed around oil and gas operations, particularly those associated with the North Sea. Whilst these undoubtedly provide a robust platform to build upon, as renewable technologies mature, both regulators and duty holders are being required to assess whether existing approaches remain fit for purpose, or whether they need to be adapted to reflect new hazards, work patterns and organisational structures.
Offshore wind farm safety
Offshore wind presents some of the most significant safety challenges within the renewables sector. Construction, commissioning and maintenance activities routinely involve working at height, complex lifting operations and prolonged exposure to harsh marine environments.
Worker transfer remains a particular risk area. Personnel frequently move between vessels and turbines using transfer boats or helicopters, often in challenging weather conditions. While lessons can be drawn from decades of offshore oil and gas experience, offshore wind developments often involve shorter project lifecycles, tighter commercial margins and a more fragmented contractor base. These factors can increase the risk of inconsistency in training, supervision and emergency preparedness.
The challenge for duty holders is ensuring that the drive for rapid deployment and cost efficiency does not dilute the sector’s long-established, global-leading safety culture or undermine robust risk management arrangements.
Hydrogen as an emerging risk
Hydrogen is a key component of the UK’s decarbonisation strategy, particularly in relation to industrial processes, energy storage and the decarbonisation of heat. However, hydrogen presents well known hazards, including high flammability, explosion risk and difficulties associated with leak detection and containment.
Unlike established fuels, hydrogen infrastructure is still at a relatively early stage of development in the UK, and there is limited operational experience, at least at scale. This raises questions around workforce competence, emergency response planning and the adequacy of existing safety management systems. Storage, transport and blending introduce further risks, particularly where hydrogen is integrated into facilities that were not originally designed for its use.
Regulators are already signalling the need to ensure that technological innovation does not outpace the systems required to effectively manage the risks presented by that new technology.
An ageing workforce and skills transition
The energy transition is taking place alongside a significant demographic shift within the workforce. Many highly experienced oil and gas workers are approaching retirement, taking with them decades of safety critical knowledge and operational experience.
At the same time, renewable energy projects are attracting new applicants who may not yet have comparable experience in high hazard environments. While essential retraining and reskilling initiatives are underway, the pace of change raises concerns about potential experience gaps, particularly in areas such as hazard identification, risk assessment, permit to work systems and emergency response.
Effective knowledge transfer, both at employee and corporate level, will be essential if lessons learned from past incidents are to be fully embedded in the next generation of the energy workforce. Without deliberate mechanisms to capture and pass on that experience, there is a risk that known hazards are relearned rather than avoided.
Recently, regulators have also shown increasing interest in how responsibility for health and safety is managed across supply chains, especially where safety critical work is outsourced or shared between multiple parties, a practice which is common in renewable energy projects.
Mental health, fatigue and wellbeing
There is now no doubt, including in the mind of the regulator, that health and safety duties extend beyond physical hazards alone. Offshore working patterns, long rotations, isolation and demanding schedules can place significant strain on workers’ mental health and wellbeing.
Fatigue remains a particular concern, especially where weather delays, travel pressures and tight project deadlines intersect. Psychological safety, access to appropriate support and proactive wellbeing measures are increasingly viewed as integral components of effective risk management, rather than additional support offered by market leading businesses.
The energy transition presents an opportunity to embed wellbeing considerations into new operating models from the outset, rather than retrofitting them in response to problems as they arise.
Looking ahead
The UK’s move towards renewable energy is essential and inevitable, but it brings with it a complex and evolving safety landscape. As technologies, workforce arrangements and project models change, so too must safety frameworks, training approaches and regulatory oversight.
Adapting to new energy sources will necessarily mean adapting approaches to health and safety, ensuring that progress towards net zero does not come at the expense of worker protection.
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