Offshore Wind’s Safety Crossroads: Lessons from the 2024 G+ Incident Report

Source: G+ Global Offshore Wind Health and Safety Incident Data Report, 2024 (EI 3591)

🚨 When Growth Outpaces Safety Readiness

In 2024, the global offshore wind sector logged a 27% increase in work hours—surging to 79 million. That’s an unmistakable sign of momentum in the energy transition. But with this acceleration came troubling safety signals:

• Total Recordable Injury Rate (TRIR) rose by 7% to 2.93

• Lost Time Injury Frequency (LTIF) jumped 19% to 1.27

• One fatality occurred during equipment disassembly, and a significant fall incident took place aboard a barge

This year’s data affirms a core truth of organizational behavior: expansion without parallel investment in safety systems invites risk. As operational tempo increases, so must safety capacity—culturally and operationally.

🔍 Injury Patterns: What’s Hurting Workers

Manual handling remains the #1 culprit—121 cases reported, consistent with previous years. The body tells a story: sprains, strains, bruises, and contusions dominated lost time injuries, suggesting persistent ergonomic shortcomings and task design issues.

High-risk tasks and systems stood out:

• Grouting, electrical work, and working at height were repeatedly linked to high-potential incidents.

• Jack-up vessels and barges became the most dangerous zones, now responsible for 14% of all injuries—a 42% increase YoY.

• Development phase projects saw the highest surge in incident rates—a 75% increase, with TRIR tripling to 1.13.

These trends underscore a need for more targeted safety interventions during construction phases and marine operations—especially around dynamic lifting, transfer systems, and vessel stability planning.

🌍 Regional Trends: Who’s Improving—and Who’s Falling Behind

Among the leading offshore wind regions:

• Germany stood out as the only nation with declining TRIR and LTIF rates.

• The UK and US led in incident volume, but showed mixed improvement signals.

• Taiwan, Netherlands, and Denmark recorded the sharpest rise in both injury frequency and severity—pointing to possible gaps in regulatory harmonization, workforce preparedness, or contractor oversight in these rapidly scaling markets.

🧠 Safety System Strains: Operational Weak Points

Two system-level insights emerged prominently:

1. Walk-to-Work (W2W) Systems

   • Connection/disconnection phases saw rising asset damage and hazard notifications

   • These steps now demand stricter procedural checks and crew training

2. Lifting Operations

   • Accounted for the majority of asset-related incidents

   • 15% involved dropped objects, amplifying both equipment risk and personnel exposure

These findings warrant a cross-sector review of lifting protocols, mechanical integrity checks, and W2W interface controls.

🧾 Medical Response and Severity

Among the 48 cases requiring emergency medical care, 33 involved lost time injuries—including the year's sole fatality. These figures reaffirm the need for:

• Better triage preparation and emergency response planning

• Real-time communications between offshore teams and medical support

🔭 Looking Ahead to 2025: G+ Roadmap

G+ announced several proactive steps:

• Body part and injury type data will be formally captured in future reports, strengthening root cause analyses

• A global expansion of the Stakeholder Forum, starting with Korea

• New safety campaigns will target manual handling, lifting practices, and offshore transfer methods

These moves reflect an industry stepping into maturity—but the burden of execution lies with employers, operators, and safety leaders alike.

🧩 Action Steps for Safety Leaders

To meet this moment, safety managers and offshore project owners should:

1. Reassess Ergonomic Risk

   • Prioritize manual handling assessments and redesign tasks where possible

   • Implement NIOSH lifting calculators and coach behavioral lifting techniques

2. Audit High-Potential Systems

   • Review controls for W2W operations, electrical system lockouts, and barge work

   • Elevate near-miss reporting to a proactive learning system

3. Partner Across the Lifecycle

   • Ensure HSE oversight is embedded from design through decommissioning

   • Reinforce cross-disciplinary collaboration between safety, engineering, and marine operations

📚 Final Word: Don’t Just Count Incidents—Understand Them

Growth is good. But data without interpretation is noise. As the offshore wind industry becomes central to global energy goals, safety must evolve with equal speed and sophistication.

Let 2024’s report be more than a ledger of harm. Let it be a call to recalibrate our assumptions, retrain our crews, and reengineer our systems for the realities of tomorrow.

Citations

• G+ Global Offshore Wind H&S Incident Data Report 2024, Energy Institute, EI 3591