Technical standards and legal requirements for wind turbines: a global overview

Recent events and developments in the global wind energy scene relating to safety and the emergence of specific individual national technical criteria and standards like in India have raised the need for having an international standardisation and harmonisation for wind turbines. There have been attempts by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) globally and European Union's European Wind Turbine Standards (EWTS) project regionally, to develop international standards for wind turbines. Some leading nations in wind energy development like Germany, Netherlands and Denmark in the Europe have their own national standards and policies. Other leading nations like the USA and India are moving towards having national legal and technical requirements. Against this backdrop, the paper examines the features of various national requirements for wind turbines existing in the leading countries viz. USA, Germany, India, Denmark and Netherlands. The initiatives towards international standardisation like the IEC initiative and the EWTS project are also examined. An attempt is also made to evaluate the need for such common international standards vis-a-vis individual national technical and legal requirements.