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In early May, WindGuard Certification GmbH looks back on ten successful years as a certification service provider for renewable energies. Since its foundation, the company from Varel, Germany, has continuously expanded its service portfolio and today receives great recognition both nationally and internationally as an independent certification body accredited according to DIN EN ISO/IEC 17065 with its own accredited test laboratory according to DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025. Lars Weigel, the new Managing Director of WindGuard Certification since April, intends to further strengthen this position with his many years of experience and expertise in the field of renewable energies.
“By establishing WindGuard Certification in 2011, we at Deutsche WindGuard reacted to the market situation at just the right moment and met our customers’ demand for an impartial certification body,” Gerhard Gerdes, shareholder of WindGuard Certification, recalls. “At that time, we focused on the sustained success of WindGuard Certification in the field of measurement and certification of electrical properties.”
In this area of expertise alone, with more than 350 issued plant certificates and 220 declarations of conformity, WindGuard Certification has contributed to connecting power generation plants with a total output of more than 2.81 gigawatts to the grid over the last ten years. In addition, numerous other milestones have shaped the company’s history. For example, WindGuard Certification pioneered in introducing the Lifetime Extension Certificate for wind turbines back in 2014 and was accredited by the German Accreditation Body (DAkkS) as the world’s first certification body for this service. With over
1,200 successful lifetime extension assessments in Germany and abroad, the company has since established itself as the market leader in this field.
Likewise, pioneering spirit was the success factor in the development of a series of stationary or mobile test devices for the medium and low-voltage grid, which WindGuard Certification now markets worldwide. Installed in a container, this test equipment enables “fault-ride-through tests” on-site at the generating unit to prove dynamic grid support for grid stabilisation purposes in the event of a malfunction. For some years now, type and project certification have further enhanced the WindGuard Certification service
portfolio.
“Our 20 employees have more than 100 years of combined experience in the renewable energy sector and more than 50 years of combined experience in certification,” explains Lars Weigel, “with joint efforts we will further advance our activities and align them specifically to the needs of our customers – onshore, offshore, worldwide.”
