Digitalization offers great potential for wind power

IEA Wind TCP Task 43 – Digitalization

The vision is to unlock the full value of wind energy through digital transformation.

The mission is to act as a digital transformation catalyst by driving open collaboration within and beyond the wind community to deliver insights, recommendations, standards and tools in the key areas of data, culture, and coopetition.

The goal is to define what is meant by the digitization of wind power; describe the current situation and practice in the wind energy sector; identify and prioritize opportunities for added value through further digitization; and learn from and build on similar work in other sectors to develop methods and recommendations for successful digitization.

More information about Task 43 to be found at https://iea-wind.org/task43/

Purpose

The purpose of RISE's participation is to understand and communicate the challenges of digitization with the wind power players in Sweden and disseminate the results from Task 43 back to relevant players in Sweden. This is achieved by participating in the work within Task 43 with the production and compilation of current R&D results and "best practices", publications and presentations.

Challenges

Based on the observations and interview results the following three grand challenges in the digitalisation of wind energy has been identified

1. Data – creating FAIR data frameworks, read more below.
2. Culture – connecting people and data to foster innovation.
3. Coopetition – enabling collaboration and competition between organisations.

These challenges form a cycle that combines the process of technology transition and technology adoption. In this cycle, data are made available, the data are then used as the basis for innovation, and the innovations are bought to market. As a result, more data become available and the cycle repeats.

Solutions

Part of the solution reads FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) data. FAIR data means that a machine, usually a computer, can find data, access data, manipulate data and reuse manipulated data for further manipulation, information and decision making. More specifically Task 43 is about:

• Produce international standards for data formats and metadata formats so that wind power data from different sources will have a homogeneous appearance.
• Increase accessibility to data, partly by establishing and paving the way for marketplaces where data exchange can take place, partly by spreading information about accessible data.

Except for data itself, methods and algorithms need to be developed to manipulate it into relevant decision support. increased degree of digitalization and use of AI also increase the opportunity for more accurate power production forecasts.

Effects

Through participation in an international IEA network, RISE can contribute to improvements in digitization in the wind power field. The participation entails knowledge transfer between Swedish industry and international research. In a larger context, the project contributes to strengthening the competitiveness of renewable energy and ensuring that new energy production can contribute to strengthening and stabilizing the electricity grid.

Coming events

On Thursday, February 8, 2024, RISE will present the work in a webinar organized by Swedish Wind Centre, SWC. Welcome!