In This Issue
Global Reciprocity
NV Energy WindGenerations Program Reopens, Requires Certification
IEA Wind and IEC International Meetings
Mike Bergey: Board Member Profile
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U.S. DOE Funds 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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September 2014  



Distributed wind is a global industry and certification needs to be global as well.  SWCC has established agreements with certification bodies around the world so that manufacturers can test once and certify everywhere.  In addition, there are on-going global discussions about how to unify these global certification programs even more. 

 

As global work continues to unify certification for small and medium wind turbines, it is important to understand that developing local markets is a key factor in increasing the overall global market.  In Nevada, the NV Energy WindGenerations Program reopened.  

 

We also provide a profile of one of SWCC's Board members in our ongoing series.

 

Let me know if you have any questions or comments about SWCC activities.

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Larry Sherwood
Executive Director
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Global Reciprocity     

Given that there are a number of national certification schemes in operation around the globe, SWCC actively works to maintain a global perspective on wind turbine certification. We now have standing agreements with four certification bodies, three in the UK and one in Japan. It is recognized that there are differences between the SWCC certification process for North American and the certification schemes in the UK and Japan.  Since these schemes have similar criteria, the purpose of these agreements is to ensure that as much of the work as possible that has  been performed by one party is acceptable in order to facilitate certification by the other party.

 

In the UK, SWCC has signed agreements with TUV-NEL, BRE Global, and British Board of Agrément (BBA). In Japan, SWCC has signed an agreement with ClassNK. These agreements have enabled global certification of the Bergey Excel 6 and 10, Evance R9000, Kestrel e400nb, Kingspan KW6, Xzeres Skystream 3.7, and Xzeres 442SR.

 

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NV Energy WindGenerations Program Reopens, Requires Certification 

NV Energy's WindGenerations incentive program has reopened with a new structure, rates, and certification requirements for wind energy systems up to 500 kW. Changes to the program include:

  • Incentives will now be offered continually until funding is exhausted. Previously, when the program was oversubscribed, applications were selected by lottery.
  • Incentives are now production-based for net metered systems, at 4.3 cents/kWh for Residential/Commercial/Industrial projects, and 8.61 cents/kWh for Low Income/Nonprofit/Public Entity projects paid over 5 years.
  • To qualify for incentives, wind turbines must meet certification requirements.
    • Small wind turbines (swept area of up to 200 square meters) must be listed by the Interstate Turbine Advisory Council (ITAC). The ITAC list shows small turbines that have been certified through SWCC or another certification body to the AWEA Small Wind and Performance Standard (AWEA 9.1-2009). The current list of turbines certified by SWCC to the AWEA Standard is posted on the SWCC's website.
    • Medium turbines (swept area greater than 200 square meters) must be listed by ITAC or have a power performance measurement for the turbine according to IEC 61400-12-1 (power curve) from an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited testing laboratory or by an organization that is ISO/IEC Guide 65 or EN45011 accredited to certify to this standard. SWCC meets these requirements, and SWCC-certified Medium turbines can be viewed here.

For more information and the current status of program budget, visit NVEnergy.com/wind.

 

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SWCC Participates in IEA Wind and IEC International Meetings
   

In August 2014, SWCC Technical Director Brent Summerville traveled to Beijing, China to participate in three important international meetings regarding the design, testing, and certification of small and medium wind turbines.

 

The third International Conference of Small Wind Association of Testers (SWAT) was held in Zhangbei, China with over 40 participants discussing issues and updates in testing, certification and labelling efforts in China, Taiwan, Japan, US, Spain, Argentina, Korea, Denmark, Canada, and the UK.

 

The SWAT conference was followed by the International Energy Agency (IEA) Wind Task 27 meeting held at the National Wind Power Integration Research and Test Center in the windy grasslands of Zhangbei. Task 27 is a research project involving the measurement and modeling of the wind resource in turbulent environments such as on and around buildings. The goal of this research is to better understand these turbulent in-flow conditions and feed this information to turbine designers and standards development workgroups. Task 27 also provides a home for the development of a set of design tools for vertical axis turbines (VAWTs). The development of these VAWT design models is currently being led by colleagues in Taiwan, China, and Japan and a set of VAWT simplified load equations is now included in the Japanese Small Wind Standard.

 

The final meeting, held at the North China Electric Power University in Beijing, was of the small wind turbine subcommittee of the International Electrotechnical Commissioner (IEC) Certification Advisory Committee. This committee is charged with studying the small wind turbine certification schemes currently in operation, such as US, UK, Japan and Denmark, and how to move toward an IEC-based certification scheme. These national schemes are working well but are not globally accepted while the globally accepted IEC Type Certification route is currently not working for small wind. This was the final meeting of this subcommittee as the entire IEC wind turbine certification system is transitioning to the new IEC Renewal Energy Scheme (IECRE). More information on this is available at iecre.org.

Blue Wind Right
Mike Bergey: SWCC Board Member Representing Industry Section     
 

A co-founder of Bergey Windpower Company and its president since 1987, Mike Bergey is a mechanical engineer and an internationally recognized expert in the fields of small wind systems, distributed generation, and village electrification.

 

He was on the founding working group of the SWCC and was a past Board member and Treasurer. He is in his third term as president of the Distributed Wind Energy Association (DWEA) and co-chairs its Federal Policy Committee. He has twice served as president of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and served on the AWEA Board of Directors for 26 years. He led the development of the small wind industry's roadmap and the certification standard, AWEA 9.1-2009.

 

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