Digital is critical to the energy transition

The energy transition is here and wind energy will keep growing faster than ever. According to IEA, onshore wind additions through 2026 are set to be almost 25% higher on average than in the 2015-2020 period.

?We achieve this growth while lowering costs through technology innovation: the levelized cost of energy for wind has decreased between 44%-78% from their peaks over the last 15 years, and the same standard turbine is now two and half more powerful compared to 2005.

?However, we are trying to meet these targets in the middle of these cost pressures, supply chain challenges and labor shortages.

?The good news is that there are solutions. One of them is Digital.

?As wind energy operators grow, they are going to need better tools to work, manage and maintain their assets efficiently and profitably and get even more energy out of the machines, while keeping costs down.

?Example: Keeping tabs on renewables fleets is a complex task, given their geographic diversity. Wind power maintenance operations on a site in Sweden may have local field teams executing on the top-priority tasks, engineers in Germany providing troubleshooting recommendations based on data insights of early warnings that a component is indicating an anomaly, and financial analysts based in Spain optimizing large-scale fleet operations.

?Often, these teams are siloed, and digital solutions can help break down these barriers and enable operations as a cohesive group using the same asset and operational data across unified workflows.

?We are just now beginning to unlock the power of digital for improving the operational performance of energy generation sources with tremendous potential ahead of us to enable the growth of clean energy across the global electricity network. Now, as said before, Digital is 20% about the tools and 80% about people, change always is uncomfortable for everyone but can always be tackled.

?In the light of the Global Wind Day, my hope is that this mindset will be able to evolve as rapidly as the much-needed Digital Transformation.