NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC. NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

Cooperation for Standards, Testing, and Certification under the U.S. China Renewable Energy Partnership

World Renewable Energy Forum, Denver, Colorado

William Wallace and Sarah Kurtz National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Wan Lin China General Certification Center

May 15, 2012

2

Background PV Standards PV Testing Wind Standards Wind Testing Certification and Summary

Solar PV/Wind Standards, Testing, Certification Cooperation

3

U.S. China Renewable Energy Partnership

• One of seven bilateral initiatives announced by Presidents Obama and Hu in

Beijing November 2009

• Created by Memorandum of Cooperation for “Establishing a U.S. China

Renewable Energy Partnership” for bilateral cooperation in renewable energy

• Managed by U.S. Department of Energy and Chinese National Energy

Administration through National Renewable Energy Laboratory in U.S. and

Energy Research Institute in China

• Five active areas of cooperation established each with its own working group

• Policy and financing

• Wind joint research cooperation

• Solar joint research cooperation

• Grid integration

• Standards, testing, and certification

• First Annual Renewable Energy Industries Forum held in Beijing May 2010

• Second Annual Renewable Energy Industries Forum held in Washington D.C.

Sept 2011

• Working Group Meetings of Standards Testing and Certification: CGC, NREL,

CEPRI, UL, INTERTEK

4

- PV Standards under IEC TC-82 – Participation in several working groups; e.g., WG2, WG3, WG6

– Mutual interests standards for materials, modules, systems, BOS components, grid interconnection

– Joint participation in May 2011 IEC TC82 meeting in Shanghai and subsequent meetings

– Linking experts for specific standards areas of mutual interests

- Encouragement and invitation of scientists and engineers to relevant DOE and other topic forums in the United States and forums in China

– Module quality

– Inverter quality

– Grid integration and high penetration of PV

– Safety standards

- Dissemination of information about PV module and system standards development – Publication of standards development work in international journals and conferences

– Translation and summaries of key standards into English

Solar PV Standards Cooperation

5

Sino-U.S. PV Standards Mutual Interests

Standard Area IEC Working

Group/Other

Description

New PV Module Rating System and

QA Standards

WG-2 NREL and Japan-AIST initiative for new rating system

for assessing PV module performance for development

of QA standards

PV Module Materials Standards WG-2 New standards for materials in PV modules including

encapsulants, backsheets, edge seals and adhesives;

and testing methods for TCO and antireflective coatings

on glass. China is also interested in i) light induced

degradation, ii) curing EVA; and iii) nominal operating

cell temperature for BIPV systems.

Inverter Qualification Tests WG-6 Revision of IEC 62093 standard (inverter standard and

qualification test)

Module System Bias Voltage Test

Method

Test method for system bias voltage stress effects and

module system bias degradation mechanisms and tests

as part of the Revisions to edition 3 of IEC 61215

PV System and Grid Integration

Standards

WG-3 Systems acceptance and grid interconnection standards

Accelerated Aging Standards WG-2 Accelerated aging for PV modules; specific interest of

CGC

Grid Interconnection Standards IEEE Standards for grid connection for experimental testing

and verification of all aspects of grid equipment; power

quality; relay protection; voltage/active power; security;

stability; anti-islanding

6

• PV Module QA Standards

– New PV module rating system for assessing module durability in variable climatic conditions

– Quality assurance standards development

– Go beyond IEC qualification test standards

– NREL in US and AIST in Japan; support generated from several China companies/organizations

– PV Quality Assurance Task Force

http://pvqataskforcemanufacturingqa.pbworks.com/w/s

Solar Standards Cooperation

Visit at Suntech, China (Courtesy of Sarah Kurtz)

Visit at Trina Solar, China (Courtesy of Sarah Kurtz) Discussions at China General Certification Center (Courtesy of Sarah Kurtz)

7

• Cooperation between Test Centers NREL and PV Test Centers under the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Exchange of testing data and information for testing procedures

Short term test center personnel exchanges

• PV Module International Round Robin Test Activity • Organization in China

– China National Accreditation Service (CNAS)

– China General Certification Center (CGC)

– National Institute of Metrology (NIM)

• Testing Centers – Leading national and key test laboratories in China

– National Renewable Energy Laboratory

– European test organizations

– AIST in Japan

• Activity – Two phases, first in progress to be concluded in 2013

– IEC 60904-1 measurement procedures

– Goal: resolve discrepancies in test data and recommend improvements in testing procedures and calibration methods

PV Test Center Cooperation

NREL PV Test Facility (NREL PIX 14091)

Solar Simulator at CAS Test Facility Beijing (Courtesy, Keith Emery)

8

Wind Standards Cooperation

Wind Standards Development in China Aggressive development in China for national and industry standards all areas of wind energy China Electrical Equipment Industry Association and China General Certification Center Mutual interests all sectors of wind component, turbine, grid integration standards

Wind Standards Collaboration under IEC TC-88

First TC 88 Meeting in China, October, 2008 Interest across 61400 standards series Collaborative interests for wind standards e.g. blade design and testing

IEC 61400-5 Rotor Blades Example of mutual interest New project team convened (PT5) Blade design, manufacturing requirements, test methods, field O&M

Team Leader: Mr. Wang Jianping (China) Secretary: Derek Berry (US) Inaugural meeting: October, 2009 – Geneva, Switzerland

9

Wind Testing Cooperation Interests

Scope of Interest • Blade testing • Dynamometer testing • Turbine type testing • Grid integration analysis and testing • Other

Discussions between Blade Test Centers

• Wind Technology Test Center in Massachusetts and CGC Blade Test Center in Baoding)

• Implementation and interpretation of international test standards (61400-23 – full scale structural testing of rotor blades)

• Interests include: o Round-robin testing o Short and long term laboratory staff

exchanges

Blade testing at Wind Technology Test Center’s Large

Blade Test Facility (NREL Pix 19222)

NREL 2.5 MW Dynamometer

Test Bed (NREL PIX 08571)

Outdoor Test Bed-GE3.6 MW

Turbine (NREL PIX 12488)

10

Certification and Summary

Certification and the China General Certification Center • Promote mutual acceptance of test results and certifications • MOUs with Intertek, TÜV Rheinland, and UL

Summary • U.S. China Renewable Energy Partnership is one mechanism in overall

framework for cooperation on standards, testing and certification • USCREP is facilitating active cooperation between standards experts and organizations, testing centers, and certification organizations • Cooperation conducted in framework of participation in international organizations

11

William Wallace National Renewable Energy Laboratory Email: william.wallace@nrel.gov Sarah Kurtz National Renewable Energy Laboratory Email: sarah.kurtz@nrel.gov Wan Lin China General Certification Center Email: wanlin@cgc.org.cn Acknowledgments Support is gratefully acknowledged from the following colleagues Liang Ji from Underwriters Laboratory John Wohlgemuth, Peter Hacke, Keith Emery, Paul Veers, Ye Li, and Derek Berry from NREL Zhengxin Liu and Rui Jia at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Shilin Fan, Chenggang Shi, Wenxin Li, and Kewei Liu at the China General Certification Center The support of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308 is

gratefully acknowledged.

Thanks