The American Wind Energy Association's (AWEA) Standards Development Board, with support from the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, has developed a set of recommended practices for using existing standards to plan, design, construct and operate offshore wind energy facilities in compliance with federal and state regulations.
The recommended practices cite four levels of existing standards – international standards; American National Standards; classification society (e.g., Germanischer Lloyd, Det Norske Veritas and The American Bureau of Shipping) standards; and commercial standards and guidelines – to address five critical areas:
- Structural reliability;
- Manufacturing, qualification testing, installation and construction;
- Safety of equipment;
- Operation and inspection; and
- Decommissioning.
The recommended practices are available here.
