International Standardisation in the Field of Renewable Energy

Renewable energy standards, regularly reviewed and updated by international committees of technical experts, can help policy makers as an instrument to demonstrate national regulatory compliance, as well as ensuring successful deployment of renewable energy technologies (RET). IRENA’s study, International Standardisation in the Field of Renewable Energy, identifies over 570 standards in the current RET landscape, yet finds gaps in the existing standards, particularly for post-installation aspects of RET, such as operation, maintenance and repair.

The study calls for a more structured information platform to make appropriate 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 RET certification schemes as a risk-mitigation tool, particularly to help small-scale projects obtain financing.

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