Equinor’s head of safety, security and sustainability Tove Lunde has been appointed as new chair of the G+ Offshore Wind Health and Safety Organisation.

Lunde will steer the body’s work in areas such as incident data reporting, good practice guidance and industry workshops, in a bid to improve the health and safety performance of the offshore wind sector.

The safety record of offshore wind was put in sharp focus last year by a senior Shell executive who warned that the industry was lagging behind the oil and gas sector, and that "only luck" had prevented a fatality in 2018.

Shell’s vice president for offshore wind Dorine Bosman said the sector experienced 256 high-potential incidents – with the possibility of death or life-changing injury – in 2018. Wind at sea’s rate of total recordable incidents was 4.55 per million hours worked, compared to 0.9 per million for oil and gas, she claimed.

The G+ organisation comprises nine leading companies active in offshore wind – EDF Renewables, EDPR, Equinor, Orsted, RWE, ScottishPower Renewables, SiemensGamesa, SSE, and Vattenfall – as well as many associate members.