The solar and wind industries will increasingly use artificial intelligence (AI) to automate operations in the coming years to boost efficiency, according to a new paper by DNV GL.
The report – ‘Making Renewables Smarter: The benefits, risks, and future of artificial intelligence in solar and wind’ – highlights the areas where AI could have an impact, such as decision making and planning, condition monitoring, inspections, certifications and supply chain optimisation and the way technical work is carried out.
It highlights that the use of robotics is growing for remote inspection, with new benefits in maintenance and troubleshooting.
The paper said crawling robots can get close to a structure’s surface enabling new technologies, such as microwave and ultrasonic transmitters and receivers, to penetrate structures to reveal faults in materials.
Autonomous driving robots can help to optimise the supply chain and in the future could build entire renewables projects, DNV GL said.
Autonomous drones with real-time AI-supported analysis will become the primary tool for carrying out inspections of wind turbines and solar panels, the report added.
DNV GL Energy director of technology and innovation Lucy Craig said: “We expect the installation of more sensors, the increase in easier-to-use machine learning tools, and the continuous expansion of data monitoring, processing and analytics capabilities to create new operating efficiencies-and new and disruptive business models.”
Image: DNV GL
DNV GL trumpets robot invasion
New report highlights the increasing role of AI in wind and solar industries
By EBS