Eliminating the Hazards in Renewable Energy

When training people to apply safety in their lives, I play a game called “What do you do?”. I ask people to imagine they are in a house on fire and they can do whatever they want to get out safely. During one training for solar installation, I had a group of electricians over forty and an eighteen-year-old out of tech school. Their answer stays with me. This eighteen-year-old trainee raised his hand and said, “Can I put out the fire?” Everyone laughed, but the young trainee persisted, “Why face the fire if I don’t have to at all?”

Undeniably, the Renewable Energy Industry is taking off at a rapid pace. With many trying to catch up with a need to fill the demand for clean energy, some say “Safety is outdated”, “being safe is not always possible” and “to meet the demands, a little risk is needed”. My personal favorite is “Safety needs to bend to make production happen”. The most profound concept people fail to comprehend is the purpose of safety in a simple question- “Why face the hazard if you don’t have to at all?”

In 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 5,190 fatal work injuries occurred in the U.S. That number was an 8.9 percent increase from 2020 in which 4,764 fatalities were reported*. A better way to understand this is that, in 2021, a worker died every 101 minutes from a work-related injury. So the question stands, “Why face the hazard if you don’t have to at all?”

At a time when Green Energy is launching off, it is more important than ever to double down on the principles of safety which eliminate the chances of hazards getting out of hand. Like the ground we rely on for stability, safety should be treated as a stable core foundation for building upon the Renewable industry for centuries to come.

When I question the applicability of safety to a project, I say the following: “Eliminate the Hazard”. Many will say “Safety First”, “Go Home Safe” or “Zero Incidents”, but I believe at the heart of what makes safety possible is “Eliminate the Hazard”.

As a Safety Professional, I perform site checks on residential solar installs. During one site check years ago, I found a team working on a two-story home built on a steep hill. The front of the home was thirty feet off the ground, with the back eight feet off the ground. When I came to the site, I observed a team member with one hand on the ladder and a second hand on the panel while climbing thirty feet up a ladder. You may wonder what the issue is. OSHA recommends three points of contact while climbing a ladder, or three body parts touching at all times. The panel in this case not only limits three points of contact to two but also acts as a kite pulling people off the ladder who are climbing. When I asked why they carried a panel up the ladder, they said it was the only way. Curious, I asked, “What about passing the panels from the back of the home from the ground to a team member on the roof?” They became quiet and noted it was inconvenient as the array was on the front of the home and passing panels from the back would increase the walking distance to transporting panels. At that time, I was reminded, “Why face the hazard if I don’t have to at all?”

"PosiGen adopted Hazard Elimination as its focus, and it was found that as safety audits were held and incident reporting was encouraged, hazards were identified and the data collected was used to eliminate hazards. As a result, PosiGen’s Total Recordable Injury Rate decreased by over 60 percent"

Safety should be practical and tailored to the scope of work from the start. Through hazard elimination, we don’t just ask, “can we install solar modules or wind turbines?” We ask “How will we install it? What are the risks associated with these tasks? and how will we control these risks?”

As the Director of Safety at PosiGen, we strive to apply the mindset of hazard elimination to renewable energy by doing the following:

●Recognize hazards, remove those hazards, substitute the danger, and isolate team members.

●When surveying for a job, note damage, holes, fall hazards, electrical concerns, and those hazardous items which will compromise the overall safety of anyone affected by the project.

●As system designing occurs, considerations are made for key safety concerns such as the distance from power lines or access and egress points.

●Engineering safety controls into the final installation design. Determine access and egress points, determine what type of fall protection should be used, and determine when Arc Flash Clothing should be worn during electrical installation.

In 2022, PosiGen adopted Hazard Elimination as its focus, and it was found that as safety audits were held and incident reporting was encouraged, hazards were identified and the data collected was used to eliminate hazards. As a result, PosiGen’s Total Recordable Injury Rate decreased by over 60 percent.

I will leave the reader with this thought: while Renewable Energy breaks record numbers, we should strive to make sure our team members never become one themselves. Safety is essential and eternal. While 5,190 fatal work injuries were recorded in the past, we in the Renewable Energy Industry can create a positive effect by eliminating the hazard. Build upon it and make it essential to your process. Eliminating the hazard is what allows each of us to be part of the Renewable Energy boom and enjoy the benefits for years to come.

Michael Kennerson, CHST, leads the Safety Program at PosiGen Solar & Energy Efficiency, the nation’s leading residential solar, energy efficiency and energy education provider for low-to-moderate income families. PosiGen has more than 22,000 residential customers, over 600 direct employees, and supports more than 150 employees through its contractors in Louisiana, Mississippi, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.