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SKN: work on strategy and improvement of complaint procedures to continue

The 21st Solar Keymark Network (SKN) meeting took place in the island of Crete, Greece. Among the many points addressed in this meeting, several were related to the outputs of the work linked to the action plan previously approved.

One of the outcomes is that a new WG on SK strategy was set up. It will address the main issues resulting from SK working groups discussions dealing with action plan topics (legal requirements, communication, new products, installers, etc.). Besides, several of the proposals suggested by the working groups will be taken into account in the next Solar Certification Fund (SCF) call.

The improvements in the complaint procedure were also addressed and the group was able to get to a compromise and a decision on the process. Though the question of retesting tolerance is still open and a specific working group was created to cover the topic. This new working group will focus on finding an adequate compromise for the 2017 Spring meeting. That meeting, the 22nd SKN meeting, is scheduled for 7 and 8 March 2017 in Freiburg, Germany, and will be hosted by Fraunhofer ISE.

The group also agreed on proposing several improvements to the Keymark scheme and welcomed the initiative of the Keymark Managing Organisation (DIN CERTCO) on starting a Working Group involving representatives from the different schemes.

This meeting also counted with notable guests, namely ESTIF President, Robin Welling, which presented ESTIF's views regarding the main challenges for the solar thermal market. The other guests, in representation of the Heat Pump Keymark, presented this new scheme and also some ideas for cooperation between schemes.

The SKN also decided, at this meeting, to promote measures to reduce the environmental footprint of SKN, namely by holding some of its meetings online, while keeping one physical meeting per year. The first online meeting will cover some points left open at this SKN meeting and will take place in the morning of December 20, 2017.

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