Vestas is buying energy analytics specialist Utopus Insights in a $100m deal designed to boost the manufacturer’s digital capabilities.
The Danish company said the acquisition would help to deliver “faster, smarter and more holistic solutions” as the global shift to renewables continued.
“Vestas is looking to offer customers digital solutions to deliver greater predictability, increased renewable energy production, more efficient operations, and better integration with energy grids,” it said.
“This transformation means energy systems and power plant owners must improve forecasting accuracy for renewable production, optimise output from each individual generation asset and orchestrate a portfolio of resources across multiple sites and equipment types.”
US outfit Utopus has 15 years of experience and offers “a suite of innovative digital products”, holds more than 30 patents and offers “data expertise in analytics, power engineering, energy software development and meteorology”.
The company reported revenues of below $10m in 2017 and will be integrated into Vestas when the deal closes this quarter, subject to third-pary approvals.
Utopus has its origins in IBM’s Smarter Energy Research Institute and boasts “a rich pedigree in data science, software, utility operations, meteorology, and renewable and distributed energy”, said Vestas.
“Vestas’s strategic objective is to accelerate the transition towards a fully decarbonised energy sector in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible, both for our customers and for our planet,” Vestas chief executive Anders Runevad.
Image: Vestas
Vestas buys US brainpower
By EBS