Wind Turbines

Design Considerations

Wind energy is a multi-faceted fall protection requirement.  Maintenance personnel need to safely climb between 100 to 300 feet from the ground level to reach the wind turbine’s mechanical drives in the power generation area.  This climb can be extremely physically demanding as temperatures in the wind turbine’s support chamber can reach 200 degrees in summer months.  Once the maintenance staff reaches the top of the ladder system, a shell protecting the drive system retracts, creating a confined yet open air work space requiring OSHA compliant fall protection. Although most wind turbines feature resting platforms that are spaced at 50 foot increments, scaling a 100-300 foot ladder system remains difficult and potentially dangerous.  To make climbing from ground level to the generation bay easier and safer, we recommend the use vertical lifelines in conjunction with climb-assist products that remove 45-55% of a climber’s body weight.  Generation bay work areas are protected with horizontal lifeline cable systems or single point anchors to ensure 100% tie-off.  Diversified Fall Protection can also help install systems and train personnel for rescue situations in the event of a fall.  Despite the relative youth of this emerging market, Diversified Fall Protection has years of experience installing OSHA compliant fall protection systems for the wind energy market including:

• Horizontal Lifelines
• Rescue and Descent
• Single Point Anchors
• Vertical Lifelines and Ladder Systems