ESTA publishes new best practice guide in move to cut onshore wind farm accidents

ESTA has published a new best practice guide in an attempt to cut onshore wind farm accidents. For a limited period, the Best Practice Guide for the Transport and Installation of Onshore WTG Systems is available to download free of charge from a section on this website.

The Best Practice Guide discussions were lead by ESTA with the support of VDMA Power Systems, the part of the German Engineering Federation whose members include the major turbine manufacturers, and the crane manufacturers through FEM, the European Materials Handling Federation.

Detailed work on the detailed 52-page guide has been underway for over three years.  The guide is also backed up by other technical guidance documents such as the FEM 5.016 Guideline – Safety Issues in Wind Turbine Installation and Transportation (EN – 2017).

ESTA President David Collett said : “The next step is for us to talk to the developers, utilities, clients – and their contractors and consultants – and to persuade them that it is in their interests to ensure that their projects adopt best practice, as we have set out.

“In essence, we are trying to highlight the risks and negative impact of poor planning. One of the features of the document and our work is to stress the importance of early engagement of all of the firms working on a project, and especially the transport and lifting companies.”