Common code for turbine design

The

(DOE)

(NREL) announced today that its wind turbine design codes, termed

, can now be used for worldwide turbine certification.

Through a joint effort by the NREL and Germanischer Lloyd (GL) of Hamburg, Germany, the world's foremost certifying body for wind turbines, both codes were approved for calculating onshore wind turbine loads for design and certification.

Although many US wind turbine manufacturers have relied on these design codes to estimate the design loads of their turbines in the past, until recently the codes were not accepted by certifying agencies in Europe. To have turbines certified, manufacturers had to re-evaluate designs using European codes or hire European consultants, a process that increased the time and cost of certifying turbines.

The FAST code (for Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence) is a comprehensive aeroelastic simulator capable of predicting both the extreme and fatigue loads of two- and three-bladed horizontal-axis wind turbines.