The Global Offshore Wind Health and Safety Organisation (G+) has recently released its latest annual safety report. Statistics show that the overall safety performance of the global offshore wind industry improved in 2025, yet workplace injuries inside turbine nacelles doubled, emerging as a new critical risk requiring urgent attention.
Total working hours across the offshore wind sector rose by 5% year-on-year to 69.2 million hours in 2025. A total of 1,791 safety incidents of all categories were logged over the year, down notably from the 1,929 incidents registered in 2024. High-potential incidents — hazards highly likely to cause severe bodily harm — fell to 211, representing a 16% year-on-year drop, which demonstrates remarkable progress in industry-wide safety management.
It should be noted that the report only covers sites operated by G+ members and excludes data from China, the world’s largest offshore wind market. G+’s membership comprises EDF Power Solutions, Equinor, Iberdrola, JERA Nex bp, Ocean Winds, Ørsted, RWE, Siemens Gamesa, SSE, TotalEnergies, Vattenfall and Vestas.
When it comes to fatal accidents, G+ member companies recorded zero work-related deaths in 2025, an improvement from one fatality in 2024. Nevertheless, three deadly incidents occurred at non-member work sites across the wider industry. A worker was electrocuted while preparing a construction support vessel at Equinor’s Empire Wind 1 project in the US. Separate fatal falls took place in Japan, where a staff member fell off a survey vessel, and South Korea, where a worker slipped during transfer between a tugboat and a crane ship. Industry safety specialists warn that peripheral work zones such as ports suffer from fragmented workflows and scattered oversight, making them persistent hotspots for safety hazards.
The report also identifies an emerging safety risk trend: turbine nacelles ranked as the single biggest source of injuries last year. Workplace injuries linked to nacelle operations hit 115 in 2025, more than doubling from 54 cases in 2024 and accounting for 15% of all recorded injuries. 85% of these incidents happened at fully operational wind farms. G+ explained that a large number of offshore wind projects finished construction and entered commercial operation in 2025, leading to far more frequent nacelle maintenance work and a corresponding rise in operational risks. This trend signals that stricter safety protocols for nacelle maintenance will be a top priority for the entire industry moving forward.
