Last week, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory hosted the second US Wind Energy standards Summit in San Diego, California. The objective of the summit was to update the US wind energy standards and certification community about the ongoing standards efforts and highlight potential areas of interest for future coordination. Key leaders and members of various standards and certificate development groups, both US and International, presented on their areas of study and the progress made over the past two years.
During the summit, the AWEA Wind Technical Standards Committee – Offshore Wind Standards Subcommittee presented an updated on the ongoing development of US offshore wind recommended practices. The Offshore Wind Standards Subcommittee is chaired and led by Walt Musial, Principal Engineer at NREL. The initiative began in October 2017 with the formation of the Offshore Wind Technical Advisory Panel (OWTAP) aiming to guide the working groups during the outlined 3 year development process. The OWTAP created five topical working groups which have convened twice over the past year. The Working Group Conveners presented to the larger standards community about the significant progress and current issues the groups are addressing. The next planned meeting is on April 8, 2019 at the 2019 International Partnering Forum hosted by the Network in New York City.
Following the summit, OWTAP convened a meeting to discuss forward action and involvement of the OWTAP members over the next stage of the recommended practice development process. The OWTAP members provided input regarding issues working group conveners are facing, including those related to interfaces between the five recommended practices. Additionally, Cheri Hunter from the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) is assisting in pursuing an offshore wind-specific Health and Safety recommended practice. Hunter presented an update on the coordination with the existing Health and Safety working group within the AWEA Standards system. The working groups and OWTAP are working diligently to draft and publish the offshore wind recommended practices over the next couple years.