A consortium of companies focused on defining open standards to accelerate the renewable energy industry published its first set of proposed communication standards for equipment used in renewable energy systems.
The SunSpec Alliance is asking for individuals and organizations to provide feedback on the proposed standards, which aim to create a common language for all renewable energy component manufacturers. This would allow greater interoperability amongst varying technologies.
For instance, SunSpec said the Modbus Specification aims to remove the barriers that currently prevent the industry from being able to integrate distributed photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems cost-effectively and on a large-scale basis.
“Federal stimulus funding and state Renewable Portfolio Standards are rapidly driving the adoption of the Smart Grid and renewable sources of energy today. But without standards that enable all solar and renewable energy components to work together, the growth of the industry will continue to be hindered by high costs and non-interoperability,” said Tom Tansy, chairman of the SunSpec Alliance. “Just as networking standards were necessary to enable the mass rollout and adoption of the Internet, the SunSpec Alliance is developing renewable energy component standards that will allow equipment from different vendors to interoperate and provide the rich dataset essential to monitoring and management of renewable energy assets.”
The Alliance is committed to open standards and interoperability. The organization seeks to leverage existing standards to the maximum extent possible, and cooperate with other standards bodies and organizations.
The group’s executive director, John Nunneley, is on the Governing Board of NIST’s Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP). The Alliance says Nunneley is able to participate and liaison across the full spectrum of smart grid and renewable energy industry standardization activities.
Membership in the SunSpec Alliance is open to the full spectrum of industry stakeholders, including project developers, system integrators, PV equipment manufacturers, networking vendors, software companies, monitoring service providers, energy producers and consumers, utilities, other non-profit organizations, and individuals.
The Alliance is seeking increased industry support to help define additional equipment standards, data reporting and application interfaces, and testing and certification programs.
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