Digitalisation can drive further improvements in operational efficiency, decision making and cost efficiency of wind energy, if concerns over data sharing can be overcome, according to a new report by DNV GL.
The report – ‘Digitalization and the Future of the Wind Energy Industry’ – said that digitalisation is already playing a major role in the growth of wind energy.
Its findings are based on a survey of almost 2000 engineers and senior executives from across the energy sector.
The report assesses the current progress on digitalisation and identifies the top priorities and barriers to further growth.
The benefits of digitalisation could be threatened by issues over the sharing of data and limited willingness to provide more transparency.
Such doubts are particularly felt in the offshore sector where concerns over data sharing (37% of respondents) and inability to access data (25%) were cited as the biggest barriers to further digitalisation, DNV GL said.
The report noted that barriers related to data were a greater concern in the wind industry than in other parts of the energy sector.
Other potential barriers include digital skills gaps within the industry and organisations focusing on other priorities.
DNV GL Energy vice president of technology and innovation Lucy Craig said: “The wind industry already uses vast amounts of data to improve performance, for example exploiting wind farm SCADA data to enable a predictive approach by anticipating faults and planning maintenance in order to ensure greater up-time.
“However, this increased reliance on data brings new challenges and the wind industry faces conflicting priorities when it comes to data sharing.
“While the benefits to sharing are clear, there is also an essential requirement to protect competitive advantage and intellectual property. Finding the balance will allow the wind industry to unlock a bright digital future.”