Das Projekt "PROTEST - PROcedures for TESTing and measuring wind energy systems" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Stuttgart, Institut für Flugzeugbau (IFB), Stuttgarter Lehrstuhl für Windenergie durchgeführt. One of the major causes of failures of mechanical systems (e.g. drive trains, pitch systems, and yaw systems) in wind turbines is insufficient knowledge of the loads acting on these components. The objective of this pre-normative project is to set up a methodology that enables better specification of design loads for the mechanical components.The design loads will be specified at the interconnection points where the component can beisolatedfrom the entire wind turbine structure (for gearboxes for instance the interconnection points are the shafts and the attachments to the nacelle frame). The focus will be on developing guidelines for measuring load spectra at the interconnection points during prototype measurements and to compare them with the initial design loads. Ultimately, the new procedures for the mechanical components will be brought at the same high level as the state-of-the-art procedures for designing and testing rotor blades and towers which are critical to safety