The Current State of International Standards and Conformity Assessment for Marine Energy

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🏢実務担当者:Renewable energy companies can use the certification framework to enhance credibility and market access.

🏛政策担当者:Policymakers can support marine energy deployment by adopting international standards and fostering certification infrastructure.

The exponential rise in the development of Marine Energy technologies now makes it one of the fastest growing clean energy-production industries. An abundance of Marine Energy technologies and designs are available to harvest energy from clean, renewable resource and include Wave, Tidal Current, Ocean Current, and River Current, and Ocean Thermal Energy Converters (OTEC). The commercial success of emerging industries, such as Marine Energy, can be enhanced for investors, insurers, regulatory authorities, end users, and public stakeholders by adherence to international standards and conformity assessment processes, such as certification. Standards and certification ensure these systems are viable, reliable and efficient in terms of safety and performance. In 2007, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) established Technical Committee (TC) 114, “Marine energy – Wave, tidal and other water current converters”, to develop international standards for Marine Energy conversion systems to provide electrical energy and other outputs such as desalination and heat exchange. IEC international standards are developed through consensus by experts representing many countries, then approved and published by a globally recognized body. Standards comprise of rules, guidelines, processes, or characteristics that allow users to repeatedly achieve the same outcome. In 2014, the IEC Renewable Energy System (IECRE) was established to develop conformity assessment processes to enable internationally recognized certifications. The IECRE process for certification for any technology involves Verification and Validation. Verification is an assessment of a technology against a defined set of Standards or Codes through a design review. Validation is an assessment of a technology against the same set of Standards or Codes through testing. These activities are led by an IECRE accepted renewable energy certification body (RECB), often in conjunction with a test laboratory, also accepted by the IECRE. With regards to Marine Energy technologies, the IECRE is responsible for developing and managing a framework where these technologies can be independently Verified and Validated. For example, following the IEC 62600-4 Technical Specification for Technology Qualification, an RECB with a scope for delivering technology qualification services provides a gateway for these technologies to progress towards certification. This includes a robust assessment of the systems and subsystems of Marine Energy technologies, as well as the quality of integration between them and external technologies they are expected to interface with. IEC TC 114 and IECRE provide liaison with IEA-OES to collaborate on policy and development, as evidenced by the issue of the IEA-OES, IEC TC 114 and IECRE joint publication “Supporting Ocean Energy Technology Development and Commercialization: Coherent Application of Guidance, Standards and Certification”. This presentation will discuss progress to date in IEC international standards for Marine Energy and IECRE conformity assessment and certification. As of January 2025, IEC/TC 114 has over 200 Subject Matter Experts representing 18 participating member (P-Member) countries and 12 observer member (O-Member) countries and has published over 20 consensus-based Technical Specifications.

• Zenodo https://zenodo.org/records/20516525first seen 2026-06-03 04:24:43 · last seen 2026-06-03 04:24:49