2025 Kick-off Health and Safety Newsletter

Let the journey of 2025 begin! At SAS Energy, we prioritise Health and Safety above everything else, therefore it is only natural, that our first newsletter of the year is devoted to this important topic.

As we all strive to reduce climate change and achieve net zero emissions, many businesses are choosing to offset their carbon footprint by installing solar panels across their assets. Large distribution centres often have acres of space on their roofs, which makes installing solar an easy choice for them to make.

But, whilst solar power is the beacon of hope in our fight against climate change, the installation of solar panels, is no different to any other industry with its own health & safety concerns.

At SAS Energy, we identify at the earliest possible stages, any foreseeable hazards which may pose a risk to those working on our project sites, installing solar PV panels. Planning is vital to ensure that when we do start installing, we’ve taken every step we can to ensure the installation is smooth, as risk-free as possible and everyone is kept safe.

The biggest hazard we face is falls from height. Most rooftops are not designed for people to walk on every day, so there is generally little in the way of protection from a fall. When installing solar panels, we always make sure there is a physical barrier to prevent anyone from falling.

All the time there is light falling on a solar panel, it is always generating electricity and there is no off switch.? This provides its own challenge of always ensuring our workers are kept safe, so we always use qualified electrical personnel and have measures in place to ensure workers cannot come into contact with live electricity.

But safety on site doesn’t just start and end with these controls. As part of EDF Renewables, we have adopted the ‘Zero Harm’ strategy, that all accidents are preventable, so as long as we strive to make health & safety a part of our everyday working lives, at the forefront of our daily tasks and always our first topic of conversation in a meeting. Every meeting that involves three or more people starts with a daily safety message, to consistently educate ourselves and ensure health & safety is prioritised within our business activities.

We provide essential training for everyone who can impact health and safety, giving them the knowledge to ensure they do as much as they can to reduce the risks on site. This year, we have completed nearly 600 courses across all our workers and have plans in place to continue to develop the skills of our teams.

But despite our best efforts, incidents and accidents do happen. The important thing is what we can learn when they do, to ensure they don’t happen again. All our incidents are reported to EDF Renewables and once a week, all the health & safety professionals across the various business units get together, to discuss what happened, why it happened, if an investigation is required and any further actions to be taken.

Communication is the key to ensuring we all know how to prevent accidents, so we share all our findings with our colleagues, not just within SAS Energy, but with EDF Renewables too.

Our health & Safety manager provides a monthly toolbox talk to everyone in the business, providing information on various topics, not just for those working on-site, but those in the office, who can build health & safety into our planning and designs.

At SAS Energy, we prioritise health and safety as one of our core values, which must be given the time, money and effort it needs to ensure everyone can have a safe place of work and go home at the end of the day, free from ill health and injury. Together, let's make 2025 a year where safety not only meets but exceeds expectations. Every step we take towards a safer workplace is a step towards a better future for us all.

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