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DOE and NYSERDA Fund SWCC
| SWCC thanks the U.S. Department of Energy, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and other sponsors for financial assistance they have provided to SWCC to assist with the start-up of the small wind turbine certification program.
Click here for a list of all SWCC funders.
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Greetings!
 In the past month, SWCC issued our first Limited Power Certification and our sixth Conditional Temporary Certification to complement the two full certifications. With SWCC certifications representing a significant share of the North American small wind market, our certification ratings and labels are allowing easier comparison shopping, aiding incentive programs with setting payment levels, and leading toward national requirements.
SWCC continues to improve our certification process. Developing a turnkey solution for applications will streamline the certification process and reduce the overall cost and timeframe of our services. We have also made some revisions to the SWCC Certification Policy to clarify some items and to make the certification process work better for all parties, including a new timeframe for delisting inactive applicants.
In this newsletter you will learn about a National Renewable Energy Laboratory solicitation, which includes certification and testing. We also include information on our new preferred testing organizations and international activities on turbine labeling and testing.
As always, I'm available if you have questions or comments about SWCC activities.
Larry SherwoodExecutive Director |
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Additional Small Wind Turbines Provisionally Certified
The SWCC has issued its first Limited Power Performance (LPP) certification to the Endurance Wind Power S-343, and its sixth Conditional Temporary Certification (CTC) to the Eveready Kestrel e400nb 250, bringing the tally to nine turbine models now partially or fully SWCC-certified.
"We are pleased to see a varied selection of products progressing through the SWCC certification process enabling greater customer choice and consistent consumer ratings," noted SWCC Executive Director Larry Sherwood. "Our growing list of certifications is aiding incentive programs with establishing eligibility and allowing easier comparison shopping, helping small wind turbines gain mainstream acceptance."
The Endurance S-343 LPP certification confirms its Rated Power and Rated Annual Energy as defined in the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) Small Wind Turbine Performance and Safety Standard 9.1-2009. The Kestrel e400 achieved the milestone of CTC based on its certification from the UK's Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS).
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Turnkey Solution for Testing
The SWCC is streamlining the process of certification to reduce the overall cost and timeframe of our services. With a turnkey solution for applicants, all the services necessary for small wind turbine certifications will be available from SWCC. We have started this effort by working on the field-testing portion of the process. Field testing performed by an accredited testing organization continues to represent a streamlined and cost effective pathway toward certification, however many of the active test sites are operated by non-accredited organizations which require an on-site evaluation by SWCC staff.
We are announcing three testing organizations where we have performed successful test site evaluations that we are now describing as 'preferred testing organizations'. These three organizations are the AEI Regional Wind Test Center in Canyon, Texas; Windward Engineering in Spanish Fork, Utah; and the Wind Energy Institute of Canada on Prince Edward Island, Canada. Applicants will enjoy a reduced certification cost and a streamlined process when using one of these 'preferred testing organizations'.
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DOE Small Wind Turbine Competitiveness Improvement Project
The US Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have announced the "Small Wind Turbine Competitiveness Improvement Project" (solicitation Number: RGV-2-22499). Approximately $450k in funding is available in three topic areas: Component Improvements and Overall System Optimization, Manufacturing Process Upgrades and Certification Testing. Subcontracts are limited to $150k per project and a 50% cost share is required. Proposals are due Sept 28, 2012.
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Policy Changes Approved
In order to improve and streamline the SWCC certification process, we adopted several changes to SWCC1: SWCC Small Wind Turbine Certification Policy. The proposed changes were sent to applicants for a 20-day comment period. After receiving several comments, all proposed changes were approved by the Board of Directors except for the proposed increase in the Annual Renewal Fee - this change has not been made. Some notable changes include:
- This clause was added to the Equipment Eligibility section (F3): "Previous versions of a SWT design that are no longer available to the market are not eligible for SWCC certification."
- The period of validity for Conditional Temporary Certification (CTC) is changed from 18 to 12 months.
- For MCS certified SWTs, the applicant is now required to submit the Certificate and Summary Report to be eligible for CTC.
- An Inactivity clause was added that requires advancing from Under Contract to Under Test in 18 months to avoid being changed to Inactive and removed from our listing of applicants.
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International Activities
Since 2009, a group of international small wind experts have worked together on International Energy Agency (IEA) Task 27: Consumer Labeling of Small Wind Turbines. One outcome was the 2011 publication of The Recommended Practices for Wind Turbine Testing and Evaluation: Consumer Label for Small Wind Turbines, which provides an international small wind label and procedures for conducting the necessary tests. Another notable outcome of this work was the formation of the Small Wind Association of Testers (SWAT), with each participating country forming their own in-country SWAT comprised of organizations that test small wind turbines. SWAT organizations from around the world held their first international workshop in Ithaca, New York in April 2012. Four US SWAT workshops were held in the years prior to this first international gathering.
Task 27 has now been expanded to test, model and study small wind turbines (both HAWT and VAWT) in the built environment. The new deliverable will be a targeted recommended practice for small turbines and wind in the built environment. The IEA Task 27 work is being led by Ignacio Cruz of CIEMAT in Spain and Trudy Forsyth of Wind Advisors Team and SWCC Board President.
SWCC's Technical Director, Brent Summerville, participated in a August 2012 workshop organized by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to identify and evaluate distributed and community wind energy market opportunities in Brazil. The SWCC, DOE National Labs and US manufactures exchanged experiences with Brazilian officials and stakeholders regarding small and medium wind turbine R&D, standards development, testing, certification, and project development considerations including grid infrastructure, and incentive programs. SWCC will continue to work for global harmonization and reciprocity of small wind certification programs and requirements in Brazil and other important international markets.
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Board Member Profiles
Ken Jurman
 Ken Jurman is with the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy where he manages the Division of Energy's renewable energy programs. He works closely with state and local economic development agencies to promote the growth of alternative and renewable energy manufacturing, as well as with numerous public, private and non-profit organizations to increase the sustainable development of renewable energy technologies.
Wind power has become a primary focus of Ken's activities over the past several years. He works closely with, and provides support to the Virginia Center for Wind Energy at James Madison University to help lay the groundwork for wind power development in the Commonwealth - both on and offshore. He also serves as staff to the Virginia Offshore Wind Development Authority, a legislatively-created body established to facilitate, coordinate, and support development of Virginia's offshore wind energy industry, offshore wind energy projects, and supply chain vendors.
In addition to his work with the Commonwealth, Mr. Jurman serves on the Board of Directors of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) and as a government sector representative on the Board of the Small Wind Certification Council. He is an avid, but somewhat lapsed cyclist, and a rather slow, but improving runner. He enjoys woodworking and woodturning, even though he manages to make more sawdust and wood shavings than finished products. He lives in Rockville, Virginia with his wife Laura and daughter Anna Claire.
Dr. David Laino
 David Laino obtained his B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, in 1991. His desire to work in a field outside of the traditional commercial or military aircraft sector led him to the University of Utah to study wind energy under Dr. Craig Hansen, where he achieved his MS (1994) and Ph.D. (1997) in Mechanical Engineering.
David has worked with Windward Engineering since 1999. He helped develop wind turbine simulation programs that are now accepted for use in international certification of wind turbines. He has worked on many projects developing wind turbine systems and components using these software tools. He has also assisted in the development of wind turbine certification standards, and serves as Secretary of the Technical Advisory Group to the US Technical Committee for IEC wind turbine standards development.
David remains a principal of Windward Engineering where he helped develop the Endurance S-series wind turbine. To produce and market this new, small wind turbine product Endurance Wind Power was formed. David is a Principal Engineer at Endurance, which offers 5 and 50 kW wind turbine products for distributed energy applications.
Ernest Pritchard
 Ernie Pritchard is the Director of Small Wind and a co-founder of Sustainable Energy Developments, Inc. (SED). As the Director of Construction and Small Wind he works to proliferate viable on-site wind turbine installations across the Northeast. He is also involved in the ongoing development and implementation of a Comprehensive Wind Turbine Operations and Maintenance Program. Pritchard works with homeowners, farmers, schools and small businesses to develop economically and environmentally beneficial wind projects that fit the specific characteristics of each site.
Pritchard, an eligible wind turbine installer in the state of New York, has been involved in or managed over 30 small wind turbine installations with project responsibilities including sales, permitting, public funding, financing, electrical interconnection, construction, installation, and maintenance. After leading the SED crew to its 26th Bergey Excel wind turbine installation in 2009, Pritchard and the rest of SED were honored by the Midwest Renewable Energy Association by being named their Wind Installer of the Year.
Prior to the founding of SED, Pritchard worked as an independent contractor designing and installing wind resource assessment systems and meteorological towers across the United States. Pritchard, like seven other SED employees and all five co-founders, attended James Madison University. Pritchard earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Science from the University in 2000.
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