Standards for renewables ensure success

A new study from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) highlights the value of clear, consistent, internationally accepted standards to ensure the successful deployment of renewable energy technologies. Renewable energy standards, regularly reviewed and updated by international committees of technical experts, can also help policy makers demonstrate national regulatory compliance.

But the new study, IRENA’s study, International Standardisation in the Field of Renewable Energy, reveals gaps in the existing standards, particularly for operation, maintenance and repair. IRENA’s researchers, having identified over 570 current standards for renewable energy technology, call for a more structured information platform to make standards accessible to a variety of users.

All stakeholders, including those from developing countries, need to be engaged in the standardisation process. IRENA’s analysis also underlines the importance of technology certification schemes as a risk-mitigation tool, particularly to help small-scale projects obtain financing.

The study is available here.

An inventory of standards relevant to renewable energy is also available and can be downloaded here.