Interstate Turbine Advisory Council Releases Unified List of Small Wind Turbines
Collaborative Group of Public Clean Energy Programs Identifies Small Wind Turbines Eligible for Participation in State Incentive Programs On May 1st, the Interstate Turbine Advisory Council (ITAC), a project of the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA), released the first version of its Unified List of small wind turbines (turbines with a rotor swept area less…
Collaborative Group of Public Clean Energy Programs Identifies Small Wind Turbines Eligible for Participation in State Incentive Programs
On May 1st, the Interstate Turbine Advisory Council (ITAC), a project of the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA), released the first version of its Unified List of small wind turbines (turbines with a rotor swept area less than 200 square meters) eligible for state incentive program funding. The Unified List provides a collaborative and common list of turbines, a critical step in developing a robust distributed wind market. The List will be used by ITAC-member clean energy programs across the United States, who have pooled resources to efficiently review and evaluate turbines.
Six clean energy programs across the U.S. will be adopting the Unified List: the Energy Trust of Oregon, the New York State Energy Research Development Authority (NYSERDA), the California Energy Commission, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, the New Jersey Clean Energy Program, and Nevada Energy. The List provides these programs with peer-reviewed, carefully-vetted turbines that have proven safety and reliability records and third-party certified power performance.
“Having individual state lists of eligible wind turbines is inefficient and causes confusion in the marketplace, and managing these lists has proven a challenge for state clean energy funds,” said Mark Sinclair, Executive Director of Clean Energy States Alliance. “It is vital for states to collaborate and share intelligence about past and present product performance, customer and dealer experiences and program challenges, and that’s what ITAC’s Unified List helps them do.”
“NYSERDA sees tremendous value in the Unified List,” said Mark Mayhew, Project Manager of NYSERDA’s Wind Incentive Program. “The information contained in the List, and the collaborative process to create it, will help us improve our program and provide valuable benefits to our customers.” NYSERDA adopted the list as of today.
The following turbines were on ITAC’s original Unified List:
- Bergey Excel 10
- Endurance S343
- Evance R9000
- Gaia 133
- Wind Turbine Industries, Corp. Jacobs 31-20
- Southwest Windpower Skystream 3.7
- Xzeres 442SR
The Seaforth Energy AOC 15-50 was added at the end of May.
Only ITAC-member programs may use the Unified List for incentive eligibility. Programs wishing to use the list should contact CESA to discuss membership.
Over the last year, ITAC has hosted regular meetings to identify, discuss, review, and collect information on small wind turbines in order to create a carefully vetted list. ITAC determined criteria and requirements for small turbine review to increase consumer confidence in small wind technology, provide consistency to public clean energy programs, and to ensure that tax- or rate-payer funding supports the installation of reliable and safe technology.
Turbines on the list must be certified or pursuing certification to the AWEA 9.1-2009 (small wind) standard. In addition, ITAC reviewed manufacturers’ consumer and dealer services, marketing consistency with third-party testing, turbine operational history, turbine warranty, and manufacturers’ response to technical problems, failures, and customer complaints.
ITAC will be reviewing mid-sized turbines (rotor swept area greater than 200 square meters) over the upcoming months and plans to release a second version of its list in the fall of 2012.
To view the list of ITAC small turbine requirements and the full list of qualified turbines, please visit ITAC’s web page.
Source: Clean Energy States Alliance
