DIGITALIZATION AND

THE FUTURE OF WIND

ENERGY

SAFER, SMARTER, GREENER

02 DIGITALIZATION AND THE FUTURE OF WIND ENERGY
01
INTRODUCTION
The future of the wind industry is bright. According to
the Global Wind Energy Council’s annual report, released
in May 2019, global wind power capacity is expected to
increase by 50% in the next five years as technology costs
fall further and emerging markets drive growth. In 2018
alone, 51.3 GW of new wind installations were added
globally, taking cumulative capacity to 591 GW.
DNV GL’s own Energy Transition Outlook supports these
ambitious growth predictions, forecasting that by 2050
wind will grow rapidly to represent a 29% share of world
electricity generation and around 16% of world primary
energy supply. Onshore wind dominates this growth,
but offshore wind’s contribution will also increase by
mid-century, reaching about 20% of total wind
production.
 DIGITALIZATION AND THE FUTURE OF WIND ENERGY 03

This growth is cementing wind’s position as a ‘new About the research:

conventional’ rather than a challenger technology and This report is based on a global survey1 of 1,919 energy
the debate around investment risk is abating. A recent industry professionals. The respondents represent a
article in the Financial Times summarized this, saying range of business sizes from start-ups to large corporates
that "the industry has proved itself, it has attracted stable and a range of functions within the industry, from
long-term investors, such as pension and infrastructure board-level executives to senior engineers, developers
funds that are willing to accept lower returns, while more and financiers.
banks are willing to provide debt finance". According to
Barnaby Wharton, Head of Policy at RenewableUK, the
cost of capital has dropped from the "high teens" to at
least "low teens", "I suspect we are moving into a single-
digit phase fairly soon", he added.

But, remaining competitive through continued

digitalization will be instrumental in enabling the
industry’s ambitions in the future.

1
Conducted by Foresight Factory in December 2018 and January 2019
04 DIGITALIZATION AND THE FUTURE OF WIND ENERGY
02
THE PROGRESS OF DIGITALIZATION
IN THE WIND INDUSTRY
The wind industry was born 'digital'. Since the first wind
turbines were commissioned detailed operational data
has been collected. But, despite the use-cases proving
the impact that digitalization is having on the industry,
digitalization remains a buzzword.
We surveyed both the offshore and onshore wind
industry to reveal the current progress of digitalization;
to uncover which digital technologies are making
an impact; which barriers the industry is facing and
how organizations can take advantage of the many
opportunities that digitalization presents.
Our research of almost 2,000 stakeholders within the
energy industry reveals that 45% of respondents in
the offshore wind industry have digitalization as a core
part of their publicly stated strategy. This drops slightly
for onshore wind at 42%. However, just 21% of wind
organizations feel more advanced than the wider industry
in their application of digitalization.
When it comes to the perceived benefits of digitalization,
the wind industry places improving operational efficiency
(52%), improving decision making (42%), and improving
cost efficiency (40%) as its top priorities.
Implementation is only one part of the picture. The real
value in any technology deployment is being able to
prove the impact it has on an organization.
 DIGITALIZATION AND THE FUTURE OF WIND ENERGY 05

Which technologies are impacting the wind industry today?

OFFSHORE WIND
ONSHORE WIND

64%
Data visualization
66%

60%
Automation and digital workflow
56%

Advanced analytics (e.g. artificial 48%

intelligence and machine learning) 52%

51%
Cloud computing
47%

49%
Cyber security
48%

41%
IoT (e.g. sensors and edge computing)
39%

32%
Drones and UAVs
31%

32%
Coding
31%

28%
Augmented and virtual reality
16%

22%
Distributed computing
27%

17%
Blockchain
16%

? Other
3%
4%
06 DIGITALIZATION AND THE FUTURE OF WIND ENERGY

03
TECHNOLOGY AT A GLANCE

A key challenge with digital transformation is keeping pace with technological change and user adoption rates.
The following technologies were identified by wind energy respondents as having an impact and being important
to invest in.

AUGMENTED AND VIRTUAL REALITY

Augmented and virtual reality is considered important to invest in for 61% of respondents in the offshore
industry. Virtual reality in the wind industry can support training for the next generation of engineers,
an example of this is the Immersive Hybrid Reality (iHR) offshore wind training facility, which has been
installed at Newcastle College's Energy Academy in the United Kingdom. The system replicates the
conditions experienced by wind turbine engineers operating on offshore wind farms. The technology
allows users to virtually find and diagnose faults, in a realistic but safe environment, which helps them to
develop the vital skills they need to work in the wind industry.

BLOCKCHAIN

Blockchain’s impact is felt less acutely in wind than the wider energy industry, with only 15% of respondents
considering the technology important to invest in within the next three years. Last year we saw the launch of
the ‘world’s first’ blockchain renewable energy certification platform by Acciona Energia.
The company says that tracing the renewable origin of energy is becoming increasingly important and that
using blockchain’s properties of providing secure real-time and fully transparent data is the first step towards
a more comprehensive platform that seeks to cover renewable energy assets from other energy companies
as well.
 DIGITALIZATION AND THE FUTURE OF WIND ENERGY 07

CODING

Coding and programming on the other hand is clearly a key focus for the wind industry. Its vital role in
creating new software services for the analysis and enhancement of operations, means that 66% of
respondents think this technology is important to invest in, and 43% stating that this investment is
important within the next three years.
08 DIGITALIZATION AND THE FUTURE OF WIND ENERGY

04
THE DATA BARRIER IN THE WIND INDUSTRY

The wind industry already has access to vast amounts of
data and has taken advantage of big data technology
to move from a reactive to predictive environment to
anticipate faults, undertake maintenance and ensure
uptime. However, this increased reliance on data comes
with new challenges.
Our survey reveals that the offshore wind industry
especially, has concerns both about sharing data and
the inability to access data, with 37% of respondents
citing concerns about sharing data as a barrier to
digitalization and 25% of respondents citing inability
to access data as a barrier. Interestingly barriers around
data were a greater concern in the wind industry,
compared to the energy industry as a whole, which often
has more standards and regulatory restrictions.
When it comes to data sharing the wind industry is in a
precarious position. Collaboration and data sharing is
both an opportunity and a challenge. While there are
benefits to sharing, as demonstrated in the oil & gas
industry by the OREDA database, an industry consortium
which allows owners and operators to share reliability
data collected by member-companies over more than
30 years, it also needs to be tempered with a desire and
essential requirement to protect competitive advantage
and intellectual property.
 DIGITALIZATION AND THE FUTURE OF WIND ENERGY 09

There are several examples where the wind industry is already reaping the benefits of data sharing initiatives,
such as:

 The North American Electric Reliability Corporation: These data reporting instructions were developed
to assist utility personnel in reporting information to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s
(NERC) Generating Availability Data System GADS). Despite being driven by the grid regulatory
commission it includes reporting requirements that apply to power generation, including large
wind and solar.

 ORE Catapult’s SPARTA project: The System Performance, Availability, Reliability and Trend
Analysis (SPARTA) project is used by offshore wind owners and operators to anonymously benchmark
their performance against others.

 Engie: The French multinational electric utility company has also made a limited set of detailed
operational data available for the benefit if the wind energy industry and to facilitate the development
of new services by capitalizing on the large amount of data available.

The wind industry also needs to overcome another hurdle; moving beyond pilots projects to implementation
of digitalization in day to day operations. This operationalization, or productization, is crucial for the full
impact of digital technology is to be realized.
10 DIGITALIZATION AND THE FUTURE OF WIND ENERGY

05
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Enabling successful digital transformation goes beyond
technology. For an organization to truly benefit from any
new approach, every layer of the organization needs to
be involved and every employee needs to be on board.
For the wider energy industry, our research reveals
unanimous recognition that digital skills training
is needed, with 91% of participants regarding it
fundamental for their organization to invest in digital
skills training, with 71% considering this important for
immediate investment.
This statement also rings true for the wind industry.
The findings also reveal that the wind indusry is heavily
focused on the skills that its workforce will need for the
future. When questioned about which skillset would be
most important for the indusry to have in its workforce,
every skillset from data science to cyber security and
blockchain ranked higher than the industry average.

The following skills were given priority by the wind industry compared to
the wider energy industry:

49% 43%
Artificial intelligence Data science

38% 9%
Big data analytics Blockchain
 DIGITALIZATION AND THE FUTURE OF WIND ENERGY 11

06
CONCLUSIONS

Despite the focus on upskilling for the future, 41% of Wind energy and digital technology make great partners
the wind industry say that a main barrier to digitalization and together have the power to lead the path to a
is their internal organisation having other priorities. decarbonized global economy, but the mindset of the
To make sure that the industry remains competitive in industry will be key in realizing this exciting future.
an increasingly digital world, the priority needs to be
challenging internal perceptions and overcoming
data-based obstacles.
SAFER, SMARTER, GREENER

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