WREF 2012: Collaboration on Renewable Energy Standards, Testing, and Certification under the U.S. China Renewable Energy Partnership

During November 2009, the U.S.-China Renewable Energy Partnership agreement was authorized in Beijing by Presidents Obama and Hu from the U.S. and China. One of the principal tasks under this new program is the collaboration of the United States and China on the topic of renewable energy standards, testing, and certification with an initial focus on solar PV and wind topics. Rapid development of renewable energy technologies and markets, particularly for wind and solar applications, has created demands for new and updated standards in both countries, consistency between testing center results, harmonization of standards and certification processes, and potentially mutual acceptance of testing and certification results. This paper will describe and discuss the activities that address these issues, which have taken place under the bilateral collaboration.