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Content archived on 2024-05-07

European wind turbine certification

Objective



Objectives

Wind turbine certificates issued in one country of the EU are not automatically accepted throughout the other member states. As a consequence, wind turbine manufacturers have to approach different institutes or to go through multiple assessments to get a particular wind turbine type certified all over the European Union. This involves high costs and time consuming procedures. The problem is caused not only by the difference in local legislation and technical criteria used, but also due to differences in certification procedures, in interpretations and in methods of work of the certifying bodies.
The main objective of the EWTC project is to come to a uniform harmonized wind turbine certification in the European Union, in order to remove the aforementioned trade barriers, speed up the market introduction of new wind turbine types and further reduce wind energy costs. The harmonized certification should be adjusted to the needs of the wind energy industry and the requirements of the European legislation.

Technical Approach

The participating project partners - all actively involved in wind turbine certification - will define a harmonized certification system, recommendations and guidelines based on results collected from three test cases, each case being a full fledged certification assessment. These test cases will be executed as round robin certifications of wind turbines. In order to have a sufficient basis for identifying specific interpretation differences, the test cases will be undertaken for different wind turbine technologies and designs from different countries.
Based on the various conclusions and interpretations from the test certifications, specific points of difference will be identified. Mutual acceptable solutions for the disagreements will then be formulated. The results have to lead to the definition of a uniform set of certification procedures and sets of specific guidelines to be followed in order to arrive at mutually acceptable certification assessments.

The method of work will involve the following main tasks:

A. Preparatory phase: inventory of state-of-art in wind turbine certification and definition of a common certification procedure to follow in the project. B. Round robin certification assessments
C. Comparative analysis of round robin certification assessments D. Formulation of common basis and guidelines
E. General task : coordination, evaluation, reporting and dissemination.
Expected Achievements

The following achievements are expected from the EWTC project: 1. Formulation of common procedures for wind turbine certification to be used all over the EU;
2. Country specific guidelines for interpretation of a common certification standard where necessary;
3. Recommendations for formal procedures for implementation of the procedures on country and European level.
Because of the active involvement of the major actors in the project, the results are expected to be formally implemented in the European certification practice within 1 year after completion of the project.
Besides the direct results mentioned above, the indirect achievements of the development of harmonized wind turbine certification are reduced wind turbine costs as consequence of simplified and uniform procedures. The market introduction trajectory for new wind turbine types will be shortened. Local and national authorities will be confronted with uniform certificates. These factors will facilitate the implementation of wind energy projects in Europe.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Coordinator

ENERGY RESEARCH CENTRE OF THE NETHERLANDS
EU contribution
No data
Total cost

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Participants (4)

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