Orsted has pledged its support to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) through a new two-year partnership to support training of volunteers for the charity.
Orsted will make a contribution of £140,000 over two years to fund training costs at seven RNLI lifeboat stations across the UK.
The stations are in Barrow, Clacton-on-Sea, Humber, New Brighton, Ramsgate, Skegness and Wells.
The RNLI is the charity that saves lives at sea and its lifeboat volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service across the UK and Ireland.
RNLI volunteers train at least fortnightly on station and regularly at night to replicate real life emergencies. This training is supported by attendance at the award-winning residential RNLI College in Poole, visits to stations by trainers and via distance learning courses.
With 12 operational offshore wind farms in the UK, Orsted “shares the same strong focus on safety and uses training as a catalyst to ensure that staff have the right tools and the knowledge to keep everyone safe working at sea”.
These offshore wind farms are all located in areas corresponding to the seven RNLI stations supported through the partnership.
Since Orsted and the RNLI first joined forces in 2015 the partnership has directly supported more than 1700 lifeboat launches, helped more than 1900 people in distress and saved 88 lives.
Duncan Clark, Head of Region UK at Orsted, said: “We’re extremely proud to continue our partnership with the RNLI and help this amazing charity save lives at sea.
The offshore environment can be extremely challenging, so it’s vital that everyone is equipped with the knowledge and tools to keep themselves and others safe.
“As a company constructing and operating major offshore wind projects, we have first-hand experience of these challenges which is why we have such a strong focus on safety and training.
“Through the latest phase of this partnership, our aim is to help the RNLI crews to continue to deliver the best possible training to its volunteers.”