Met-Certified (Development of International Standards and Certification Schemes for Marine Energy Technologies) is run by a consortium of European industrial, governmental and academic partners, of which Tocardo Tidal Turbines is a major part. It was given the go-ahead by the Interreg 2 Seas Monitoring Committee in July 2016. Its aim is to increase the adoption of insurable marine energy projects through the development of internationally recognised standards and certification schemes and by testing and verifying technologies against IEC standards for marine energy convertors.
“This project answers one of the main recommendations from the Ocean Energy Forum Strategic Roadmap” said Peter Scheijgrond, project manager of the Met-Certified project. “Certification can help to reduce perceived risks of the technologies in terms of performance and structural integrity, and thus helps to attract debt financing and make export much easier. At present no certification scheme for marine energy have been developed and implemented by all main stakeholders in a consistent way. The expectation is that it will come into existence over the next 3 years under the umbrella of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Therefore the timing of Met-Certified is very favourable.”
Mr Scheijgrond added that with funding, the project can actively involve stakeholders around certification, from banks and insurers to consenting authorities, end-users, test facilities and classification bureaus. The project will start by verifying existing pilot projects against IEC standards, such as the tidal power project in the Eastern Scheldt Storm Surge barrier, which will be used as a reference case for certification.
By applying the standards and certification schemes on such projects the project will be able to receive valuable feedback to improve the IEC products. The next task is to go through the process of certification, from concept to construction to installation of a full-scale floating platform for tidal turbines. The project expects this to ensure robust standards and certifications schemes for the sector and reduce the perceived risk associated with marine energy projects. This in turn will increase the interest from large investors, enabling the sector to deploy large marine energy projects.
Met-Certified brings together partners from 4 European countries to advance the marine energy sector in the 2SEAS region: Tidal Testing Center (NL) as project coordinator, the European Marine Energy Center (EMEC UK), Lloyd’s Register EMEA (UK), IFREMER (FR), Tocardo Tidal Power (NL), Perpetuus Tidal Energy Centre (UK), NEC (NL), DNV GL (UK), Regional Development Agency West Flanders (BE) and Ghent University (BE).
Image: Tocardo Tidal Turbines
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