The Growing Role of Technical Certification in Distributed Wind
The European distributed wind market, where power is produced using small or medium-scale turbines close to where it is consumed, is still at an early stage of development. While medium-scale manufacturers and developers in the UK and Italy have profited from incentives that have spurred growth, other countries are yet to match this level of activity. And, even in the relatively established markets, uncertainty over tariff levels and variations in the certification requirements for different sizes of turbine have not helped things.
By Miguel Hoyos Irisarri, Technical Director, Norvento, Spain
The UK has a feed-in tariff (FiT) system that auto-regulates itself, lowering payments as more capacity is brought on-line throughout the country. This system was introduced on the premise that initial growth would contribute to a proportional reduction in costs for the supply chain. Since the introduction of FiTs in 2010, the industry has managed to reduce the CAPEX costs of a standard project by approximately 11%. Tariffs, meanwhile, have reduced by 35% on average (based on RenewableUK data for the 15 to 500kW range).
