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First ever Renewable Energy Health and Safety Award winner announced

1 February 2012

RenewableUK and The Crown Estate are delighted to announced the first ever winner of a new award in recognition of outstanding health and safety performance in the renewables sector.

The winner of the RenewableUK and The Crown Estate Renewable Energy Health & Safety Award for 2012 is E.ON Climate and Renewables. The announcement was made on the eve of RenewableUK's annual Health and Safety Conference, which takes place in Manchester on 1st February.
The keynote speaker at the conference is Judith Hackitt CBE, Chair of the Health and Safety Executive.

E.ON showed health and safety excellence in every aspect of their shallow gas case study at the Rampion offshore project, addressing complex issues for the sector. They showed clear leadership in their decision-making by being willing to challenge industry norms. They demonstrated professional and credible risk management processes and a passion that their experience and lessons learned should be widely shared and communicated.

The judging panel also announced that Mainstream Renewables should be officially commended for their innovation and willingness to push forward best practice in their Hornsea Met Mast project.

Maria McCaffery MBE, Chief Executive of RenewableUK, said:

"We hope that this award will act as a beacon to deliver the highest health and safety standards during what will be a critical stage of growth for the renewable energy sector. The candidates were subject to a rigorous judging process which examined each initiative carefully to determine whether it would have a real impact on risk reduction, the successful sharing of best practice, and long term improvements in performance. We are proud of our industry's excellent health and safety record. Initiatives such as this will help us to maintain these extremely high standards".

Alastair Dutton, the Programme Manager for Wind Development at The Crown Estate said: "The Crown Estate wants the UK's world leading offshore wind industry to have a robust and sustainable health and safety culture. This has proved to be an area in which the industry has come together, helping each other. This award recognises the important work that companies and individuals are taking to promote and execute a high standard of health and safety. Sharing good practice is essential to deliver the Government's offshore renewable energy aspirations."

All the shortlisted organisations demonstrated examples of Health & Safety excellence which pushed forward the industry's body of knowledge in this sector and are to be congratulated.

-ENDS-

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Notes:

  1. RenewableUK is the trade and professional body for the UK wind and marine renewables industries. Formed in 1978, and with more than 700 corporate members, RenewableUK is the leading renewable energy trade association in the UK. Wind has been the world's fastest growing renewable energy source for the last seven years, and this trend is expected to continue with falling costs of wind energy and the urgent international need to tackle CO2 emissions to prevent climate change.

  2. The award was open to all renewable energy technologies, and is another example of renewable industries working together to take a global lead on this highly important issue.

  3. Shortlisted candidates: 4 organisations were shortlisted for consideration at the final judging phase:

    • E.ON Climate and Renewables for their shallow gas case study at the Rampion offshore project;
    • RWE Innogy for the Liverpool Bay Wind Farm Exercise;
    • Mainstream Renewables for the Hornsea Met mast project and deployment of Innovative Environmental, Safety, Health & Quality Management Systems; and
    • Scottish Power Renewables – for their innovative Verification Authorisation Control System (VACS) located at Whitelee Wind farm