A handful of nonprofit, corporate, and industry partners have just announced the WindMade Standard, which they describe as "the first global consumer label identifying products and corporations made with wind energy."
So what exactly will the WindMade Standard certification require? According to their website and press release (pdf), the standard for certification is "currently being developed by a technical expert group," but the "aim will be to drive the development of new wind power plants, over and above what would be developed anyway."
Documentation for the WindMade standard consists of four parts:
Of the certification process, James Leape, the Director General of WWF, said, "It is crucial that the WindMade criteria live up to the high standards necessary for the label to serve consumers’ desire to make tangible impact and boost clean renewables."
The WindMade partners will be announcing more details at Davos in February. They're hoping to have final approval of the standard by May, and to unveil the final WindMade standard certification on June 15, 2011, which happens to be Global Wind Day.
I'll be following up with some folks in the wind industry to get a better sense of whether this is the credible standard it should be, or if they're just, um, blowing hot air.
photo: WindMade