Vestas has set a goal of doubling earnings to over €1bn annually from its servicing division by 2030.
Executive vice president for service Christian Venderby outlined at its Capital Markets Day how drones, artificial intelligence and autonomous robots would all be used to save time and money on repairs.
Venderby said Vestas employs 11,000 people in its servicing arm.
“We have built a healthy backlog of US$28 billion and that is future, contract-secured revenue, covering around 51,000 turbines,” he said.
Venderby said the O&M sector has the potential to become a $40 billion annual market by 2030, which means an annual growth rate of around 7%.
With this in mind, he said Vestas saw a path to doubling its current service EBIT to €1.1 billion by the end of the decade.
He said using drones could be used for turbine inspections, rather than traditional rope access, which could reduce costs by up to 70%.
There are also plans to utilise artificial intelligence, which could analyse more than 200 photos per inspection and recommend changes.
An in-house developed robot called BladeRobots is also being put through commercial testing.
The technology would be used for minor and cosmetic repairs, and could be made available for licensing.