Industry ministry speeds up wind turbine certification with new component rule

The industry ministry said Thursday it will streamline certification for medium and large wind turbines by introducing a standalone safety standard for their core mechanical assemblies. The Korea Agency of Technology and Standards will begin accepting applications for Rotor-Nacelle Assembly, or RNA, certification on July 31.

Under the previous system, companies were required to re-certify the entire turbine whenever tower height or other specifications changed, even if the core generating components remained identical. This redundancy forced firms to undergo duplicate evaluations. In one extreme case, a single turbine model took 2,097 days to clear the process due to repeated assessments of the same parts.

The new framework aligns South Korea's standards with the International Electrotechnical Commission's global renewable energy certification system, known as IECRE. By validating the rotor, hub and nacelle separately, manufacturers can now leverage existing test results when modifying tower designs, provided the changes do not increase structural loads beyond certified limits. Applications for the new RNA-specific track open through the Korea Energy Agency.

Kim Dae-ja, head of the technology standards agency, said the revision directly reflects feedback from the sector aimed at easing regulatory friction. "We will continue to improve the KS certification system to proactively respond to changes in the industrial environment," he added.