With Artificial Intelligence (AI) advancing at lightning speed, industry experts are beginning to spot patches of potential to tackle society’s greatest challenges. Among these, achieving net zero. So, how can AI be integrated into renewable energy projects, and what impact could this technology have? 

‍

Some applications are already no-brainers, like using AI to better predict how much energy solar panels will make. But the most exciting developments could be in making renewable energy projects less unpredictable, more reliable, and easier to understand. 

‍

Less Unpredictable 

Notoriously, renewable energy projects have made steep efficiency losses because they’re dependent on unpredictable factors such as weather, seasonal variation, geography, and energy storage capacity. But now, with AI, new ways of creating predictability have risen. For instance, by combining AI and the Internet of Things, we can now create digital copies of energy networks. These are called “digital twins”. Digital twins help engineers monitor and predict network behavior, ensuring energy is distributed in the best way possible. 

‍

More Reliable

AI can also predict when equipment needs maintenance, replacing scheduled maintenance with a more flexible (and reliable) way of doing things. AI-monitored system performance could get closer than ever before to eliminating solar PV system errors for instance.  In the same way, AI could manage Battery Energy Storage Systems, which pave the way for practical renewable energy solutions at scale. 

‍

Easier to Understand

AI will be a force for good in helping us understand climate change. Remember, AI can help us analyse huge amounts of data. And so when it comes to predicting weather patterns, AI’s granularity will make energy systems even more efficient. This same attribute can be applied to distribution. As AI will better understand when and where energy is needed, energy distribution on local, regional, or even global scales could improve.

‍

The Caveat

That’s a whole lot of potential, coming at the industry very fast. 

But as with anything AI, there are concerns around the level of trust we can rely on this disruptive technology. For example, what would happen if AI predictions were biased in some way? This could make predictions inaccurate and worsen problems. 

Questions like these must be asked and answered, yes. That said, at Verde Energy Group, we can’t help our fascination with what could be.