What are the main health and safety challenges related to maintenance and repair of ageing low carbon energy infrastructure, such as offshore wind turbines?
Background
HSE Strategic Objective: Enable industry to innovate safely to prevent major incidents, supporting the move to net zero (https://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/assets/docs/the-hse-strategy.pdf)
HSE has a significant part to play in the safe delivery of the government’s commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas by 2050. Transitioning to a carbon neutral economy will see more innovative technologies and processes, which will present new risk. The scope of our research will underpin work to make sure that health and safety legislation does not prevent safe innovation and progress and will contribute towards enabling a safe transition across all industry sectors. We also understand that this is a phased change, and we continue to prioritise research to support maintaining our role in regulating the major hazards in existing energy industries.
To help manage risk, we will focus our attention on the breadth of activities that net zero encompasses. This will provide evidence to inform any policy, regulatory and operational changes needed to support key stakeholders.
To address the knowledge gaps we will adopt a broad approach including identifying and synthesising existing/developing evidence; influencing, fostering partnerships and collaborating with others; having the assurance frameworks to ensure that commissioned research is aligned to addressing the most prioritised knowledge gaps and is the optimum approach to deriving the evidence.
For some technologies, the level of interest, developments and activity is such that inter-related research activities necessitate coordination via a programme model. This is currently the case for the technological areas of carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) and gaseous hydrogen. There is also significant activity in the battery technology area and alternative liquid fuels, particularly liquid hydrogen.
The questions provide more detail of the evidence needs within the main Areas of Research Interest Question Group.
Next steps
Get in touch: hsecsa@hse.gov.uk
Source
This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:
Topics
No topics assigned yet
Research fields
No research fields assigned yet
Related UKRI funded projects
-
Development of a real-time opportunistic maintenance strategy for floating offshore wind turbines
This project aims to develop a real-time opportunistic maintenance strategy for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWTs) to support reductions in operation and maintenance costs and unplanned downtime, as well as maximiza...
Funded by: Horizon Europe Guarantee
Why might this be relevant?
The project specifically focuses on developing a real-time maintenance strategy for offshore wind turbines, addressing the health and safety challenges related to maintenance of ageing low carbon energy infrastructure.
-
Ventura-OS - an innovative new approach to maintenance of off shore wind turbines
"Offshore wind in Europe is expected to produce up to 11% of EU's electricity by 2030, BUT due to days lost in maintenance this total is unlikely to be achieved \[Wind Europe Unleashing Europe's offshore wind potent...
Funded by: Innovate UK
Why might this be relevant?
The project specifically addresses the challenges related to maintenance of offshore wind turbines, providing innovative solutions.
-
HOME-Offshore: Holistic Operation and Maintenance for Energy from Offshore Wind Farms
This project will undertake the research necessary for the remote inspection and asset management of offshore wind farms and their connection to shore. This industry has the potential to be worth £2billion annually...
Funded by: EPSRC
Why might this be relevant?
The project focuses on remote inspection and asset management of offshore wind farms, indirectly addressing some health and safety challenges but not specifically related to ageing low carbon energy infrastructure maintenance.