Standards and Practices - Structural Integrity of Offshore Wind Turbines - page 49

Phase III. Implementation,
Phase IV. Operation, and
Phase V. Decommissioning.
The certifier or registered inspector company is to be selected from a
preapproved list of BSH-preapproved offshore wind energy certification
companies. The list currently consists of SGS, DNV, GL, and DEWI Off-
shore. Companies can apply for approval as offshore wind energy certifi-
cation companies.
For a given project, one certification company could cover one phase
(e.g., design certification) and others could cover other phases. For exam-
ple, a second company could cover implementation (manufacturing,
transport, and installation), and a third could cover operation.
BSH is the final approval authority for all five phases. It reviews the
design and certification documentation itself in determining whether to
grant final approval of a project phase. In the process, BSH is often sup-
ported by individual external technical experts with specific knowledge of
that phase—for example, a geotechnical expert for Phase I and a wind tur-
bine expert for Phase II.
ONGOING STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT AND RELATED
RESEARCH: NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL
American Wind Energy Association Development
of Offshore Recommended Practices
In October 2009, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), in
conjunction with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, initiated an
effort to develop a set of recommended practices for assessing the local,
national, and international standards and guidelines that are being used
for all wind turbines in the United States and to make recommendations
on their use and applicability. The effort is aimed at three major areas
where current standards (and related guidelines and other such docu-
ments) are ambiguous or have significant gaps when applied in the United
States. One of these areas is offshore wind energy.
The offshore wind energy group will address all areas that are rele-
vant to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and