OREANDA-NEWS. September 15, 2015. Shri Piyush Goyal Union Minister of State (IC) for Coal, Power and New and Renewable Energy said that a National Lab Policy is needed to address the testing, standardization and certification renewable energy projects in the country. Such a policy document should bring out a clear work plan identifying the need of equipment and infrastructure including funds requirement. While inaugurating the National workshop on Lab Infrastructure for Testing, Standardization, Certification and Inspection for Renewable Energy Deployment Programme, here the Minister said that indigenous technology development and standardization is essential for the growth of renewable energy in the country.

There is a need to pay more attention on ensuring quality and reliability of renewable energy systems for effective promotion of renewable energy. Shri Goyal emphasised on maintaining consistency in manufacturing and confidence in reliability of these technologies/systems to ensure that systems installed function properly.

The Minister stated that the Biogas needs to be given more attention to make it a well-organized industry. Improved biomass cook stoves should be promoted for clean cooking solutions, thereby addressing both fuel saving and health hazards concerns of rural women and children. He further stressed that proper standardization will facilitate financing options for deployment. We need to strengthen test facilities for proper testing to maintain quality of products. Also, training, proper inspection for checking the quality of systems installed is needed, ensuring effective utilization of renewable energy. Shri Goyal hoped that the workshop will address are gaps streamlining the test protocols and strengthening test labs for proper performance testing of renewable energy systems to ensure the quality.

Shri Upendra Tripathy, Secretary, MNRE emphasised need of proper testing of renewable energy systems following the standardized procedures to ensure the reliability so that they function properly when deployed at site.

The workshop was organized in view of the MNRE’s ambitious programme of 175 GW Renewable Energy Deployment Programme. The objective of this one day national workshop was to discuss the standards and procedures being followed for effective implementation of testing and certification, identifying the gaps to meet the needs of ensuring quality and reliability of the systems/ products/ components, taking into account technology advancements and local requirements. Experts from test labs associated with testing and certification in solar, wind, etc. and representatives from SNAs participated in the workshop.