Renewable Power

Pre-construction Health and Safety Assessment

In accordance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act No 85 of 1993, a Pre-construction Health and Safety Risk Assessment was conducted in 2011 by Vivienne Stern and Christopher Beattie of Vivienne Stern and Associates, for the proposed construction of a Wind Energy facility, CSP (Concentrating Solar Power) and CPV/ PV (Concentrating Photovoltaic) Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

An onsite risk assessment was conducted in order to identify any existing health and safety hazards that could be encountered during the pre-construction phase.

Site safety inspections play an important role in the identification of hazards at the workplace and in the development of control measures. The site safety plan should outline the procedures and methods by which contract workplaces will be inspected on a regular basis.

Health and Safety potential impacts to worker and public health and safety from wind energy project construction would be similar to those expected for any construction project with earthmoving, large equipment, and transportation of oversized materials.

Hazardous Materials and Waste Management of solid and industrial waste generated during construction activities.

Land Use: impacts to land use could occur during construction if there were conflicts with existing land use plans and community goals; conflicts with existing recreational, educational, religious, scientific, or other use areas.

Transportation: short-term increases in the use of local roadways would occur during the construction period.

Visual Disturbances: the proposed establishment of CSP (Concentrating Solar Power) and CPV/ PV (Concentrating Photovoltaic) plants will result in ground disturbance and vegetation removal resulting in visual impacts.

Removal of vegetation may be completed by both mechanical and manual methods.

Weather conditions: an adverse-weather policy should be established.

Security is required to make provision for both lawful and unlawful visitors. Security measures should be sufficient to prevent access by any unlawful visitors without causing them harm.

Occupational health: the company will ensure that there is appropriate occupational health support and, where appropriate, there are specific health surveillance programmes.

Safety and Health Procedures require to be developed implemented and trained according to the hazards identified in the risk assessment.

Vivienne Stern is an Occupational Health Consultant/Ergonomist working as a consultant to industry.

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