MET-CERTIFIED to run first marine energy certification workshop in Latin America

The Pan-American Marine Energy Conference (PAMEC) Energy Association is organizing PAMEC 2020, in San Jose, Costa Rica from 26-28 January.

By Antoinette Price, 15 November 2019

The Conference will examine areas including resource assessment, environmental impacts, wave, tidal, offshore wind, floating offshore wind, ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) and salinity gradient technologies, as well as storage and integration, policies to enable remote coastal community solutions and technologies to enable micro-electricity demand solutions.

The MET-CERTIFIED project has been invited to hold a workshop on IEC standardization and certification of marine energy convertors, which will explain the marine technologies sector of IECRE, the IEC System for Certification to Standards Relating to Equipment for Use in Renewable Energy Applications.

Boosting Innovation through standards and certification

“We are grateful to have this opportunity to raise awareness with technology developers, test facilities and investors, about the role of IECRE certification, and how it builds investor confidence, reduces technology risks, helps raise project finances and facilitates global market access”, says Peter Scheijgrond who manages the EU MET-CERTIFIED project.

Scheijgrond works with the Dutch Marine Energy Centre which manages the MET-CERTIFIED project. He is Convenor of the IECRE Marine Energy Working Group on Scope of certification, and chairs the Dutch mirror committee to IEC Technical Committee 114, which develops international standards for marine energy, including wave, tidal and other water current converters.

Building relationships

The workshop is part of a strategy to build relationships with end-users of certification products and better understand their needs for certification.

One of the aims is to increase the participation of Latin American service providers, such as test facilities and certification bodies in IEC and IECRE related activities, through membership or active application of the certification system.

A range of stakeholders are expected to participate, including banks, project developers, insurers and maritime regulators, test laboratories, classification bodies and technology developers.

On the agenda

The workshop will cover the following topics:

Updates in the development of standards for marine energy convertors under IEC TC 114
How certification works under the IECRE marine energy (ME) sector
Discussions of participant roles in certification, their propositions and/or needs
Interactive session enabling participants to understand the value and relevance of certification
Overview of how to get involved in IEC TC 114 as experts, or with the IECRE ME sector

About IECRE

An ever-increasing demand for electricity, and the need to reduce fossil fuels power generation, have led to rapid development and growth of the RE sector. IECRE was established in 2014 because of the need to address the specific requirements within this sector, which are not covered by the existing IEC Conformity Assessment Systems.

IECRE aims to facilitate international trade in equipment and services for use in RE in the marine, solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy sectors, while maintaining the required level of safety.

About MET-CERTIFIED

MET-CERTIFIED is funded by the European Interreg 2 Seas programme for low carbon technologies, and is co-financed by the European Fund for Regional Development (ERFD) for the period September 2016-December 2019. Additionally, the Ministry of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands, Province of South-Holland and North-Holland and the Belgian Province of West Flanders are offering financial support.

More about PAMEC

PAMEC has global membership and supports research and development of renewable energy from the ocean’s tidal currents, waves, ocean thermal current (OTC) salinity gradient (SG), and offshore wind, particularly floating offshore wind in the Americas.