In 2017, the Executive Yuan directed the establishment of third-party certification technology to ensure the safety and reliability of offshore wind farms and instructed the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection of the Ministry of Economic Affairs to promote the “The Third-Party Inspection and Certification Center Project of Renewable Energy Investment and Financing”. Recently, MIRDC, DNV-GL and several other R&D institutes jointly formed the "Taiwan Offshore Wind Farm Project Certification Alliance" to provide third-party project certification services for offshore wind farm development. MIRDC is Taiwan’s first R&D institute which obtains the national certification of ISO 17065, accredited by The Taiwan Accreditation Foundation (following refers to as TAF). In the future, MIRDC will continue to re-enhance the certification capabilities of local offshore wind farm projects and provide international-level certification services for wind farm developers.
In order to cope with domestic offshore wind energy development, wind farm construction and government policies, MIRDC has been developing the project certification capabilities for wind farms since 2018. With the help of lectures from European experts, technical guidance and practical case training, MIRDC has both product certification, factory inspection capabilities and the foundation of wind turbine inspection technology which have gradually established the professionalism and reputation of the "wind farm project certification institute". The projects that MIRDC has obtained TAF approval currently include: offshore wind farm project certification-site condition evaluation, offshore wind farm project certification-design evaluation, offshore wind farm project certification-integrated load analysis, offshore wind farm project certification-support structure design evaluation and offshore wind farm project certification-support structure manufacturing surveillance.
At this stage, MIRDC has a test platform for small wind turbines in Cigu, and a large-scale wind turbine test laboratory near Taichung harbor. These have obtained the domestic TAF ISO 17025 laboratory certification and have been recognized by international certification bodies. With the certification of TAF ISO 17065 which is expected to be able to establish a completed and systematic inspection and certification capabilities in the field of wind energy in order to help the establishment of local third-party certification capabilities and jointly confirm the development and operation of domestic offshore wind farms, the safety and reliability of its operation and maintenance.