Wind Energy, The Wunderkind Of Industrial IoT
From the first person who put a sail to the wind while aboard a small boat, to the first people who used wind-powered machines to grind grain, today’s wind energy industry is the culmination of millennia of innovative human thought, discoveries and cooperation. In our modern world, governments worldwide see today’s wind energy technology as a renewable energy solution that will provide a sorely-needed transition to the low-carbon economy and environment that our planet needs. In fact, almost 200 countries signed up to the 17 goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Climate Change Agreement, acknowledging the need for change and committing to using more renewable energy than they ever have before.
When governments say they will use more renewable energy, how much energy will actually come from renewable sources? In the EU, by 2030, at least 27% of total energy will be generated from renewables, with national targets ranging from 10% in Malta to 49% in Sweden. In the US, President Obama has announced the US target: 20% of US electricity will come from renewables. China and India have also joined this initiative, setting renewable energy targets of 30% and 40%, respectively.
In 2015, the renewable energy industry set fresh records, with global installations totaling 152 GW, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. That’s up over 8% from the previous year. In addition, 19 countries installed over 1 GW of renewable capacity during 2015 — bringing global capacity to 1985 GW.
Wind Generating Power at Scale
Despite its deep roots in the history of humankind, wind, today, has emerged as one of the world’s fastest-growing sources of energy. Only solar PV is growing more quickly. However, while solar energy may be more popular, wind energy is more universally suitable. Unlike solar energy technology, wind can be harnessed to produce energy on cloudy days, or even at night.
Annual average available wind energy density at 80 m height in North America
Wind power will see the biggest growth rates in the Asian market, where it is expected to grow at a rate of 27 to 28 GW a year, with China delivering up 85% (23GW) of that growth. By comparison, Europe expects to add 14 to 15 GW annually by the end of 2018.
In 2015, wind energy grew 63 GW globally, and accounted for more than one-fifth (22%) of all renewable capacity. 17% of this growth came from new wind power installations. The forces behind this impressive growth in wind power stem from both genuine concern for the future health of our environment, as well as pure economics. According to U.S. government data, the cost of wind energy has dropped a considerable 40% since 2008, driven by lower Operations and Maintenance costs as well as declining turbine prices.
Annual average available wind energy density at 80 m height in Europe
During 2015, Asia, at 176 GW, generated the most wind energy, with China accounting for 83% of the region’s wind energy production. Europe generated 144 GW, while North America and South America produced 87 GW and 10 GW, respectively.
Even though wind energy can be produced either off- or on-shore, the offshore wind industry holds more promise when we consider power generation capacity. Deeply rooted in Europe for the last 20 years, offshore wind power generation is just now starting to gain momentum elsewhere. During 2015, we saw offshore wind experience a 28% increase in capacity, compared to onshore’s 14%. Though both numbers are impressive, we can expect offshore to produce the more aggressive growth numbers going forward.
Why is offshore wind so much more appealing? The wind blows hardest out at sea. There’s also the matter of transporting the large, heavy components of horizontal axis wind turbines, which is much easier over water by ship, than over land by truck. Moreover, by placing the wind turbines offshore, any noise created by their operation, or alteration to the landscape due to their size, is mitigated by their distance from population centers.
In 2015, global offshore wind energy generation totaled 12 GW, or 2.8% of total global wind energy production. Of those 12 GW, Europe generated 91%, while Asia produced 9%. Several offshore wind parks are under development in North America, and are expected to start commercial operations by 2020.
Low fossil fuel prices have not affected the growth of wind energy
As we approach the end of the fossil fuel era, there’s an increasing optimism among investors when discussions turn to wind and solar projects. Investors see the long-term potential of these projects and their relevance to growing global concern regarding climate change. They are attracted to renewable energy investments, which offer attractive risk-return rates. Although the inherent variability of the weather makes revenues from renewable energy projects volatile, investors anticipate the growth of this industry in coming years and recognize that the long-term growth potential with renewable energy projects remains huge.
According to data from the Global Wind Energy Council, investment in renewables rose 4% in 2015 to reach $329 billion, beating the previous record from 2011 by 3%.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts that investment in renewables will continue to grow, unhindered by the cheaper coal and gas prices we are experiencing. BNEF estimates that $11.4tn will be invested in power generation between now and 2040, with $7.8tn going towards renewables as the percentage of energy capacity coming from zero-emission energy sources reaches 60%. Even though fossil fuel prices are low, they are not affecting the growth of investments in renewable energy. This simple fact indicates that we are indeed living in a new era — an era where clean energy provides a sustainable future for generations to come.
Wind, fast becoming a mainstream source of energy, will continue to play a dominant role in the global reduction of the world’s carbon footprint. The wind industry, however, needs to remain focused on new technologies in order to continuously reduce costs and improve efficiency. In addition, policies set by regulators will continue to play a big part in the growth and evolution of this industry. Subsidies supporting fossil fuel production must be eliminated, not just for renewables to stay competitive, but for renewables to replace fossil fuel energy and become the norm.
Data-driven decisions have caused a qualitative jump in wind energy
For years, data have driven the wind energy business. SCADA, for remote supervision and control of wind turbines and wind parks, as well as asset performance software has already begun to deliver significant increases in wind energy production during the last few years. Turbine manufacturers like Vestas, Siemens, and GE have all experienced increases in production resulting from industrial IoT data capture and analysis. Industrial IoT initiatives are expected to boost utilities revenues by 15–19% over the next three years.
Although turbine IIoT has produced great gains in energy production and efficiency, the wind energy industry must continuously look for new ways to increase production and lower costs. This can be accomplished by expanding the scope of the data analyzed beyond IIoT and including data from other systems such as commercial weather, Operations & Maintenance, and power management. By expanding data analysis to include these sources, analysts will receive better, more informed results from their analyses. By expanding beyond data produced solely through turbine IIoT, the wind energy industry can increase production even further while reducing its operating costs.
Let’s put this to an example. On a large wind farm covering a sizable geographic area, the wind at one end may be much lighter than the wind at another. If the on-site Operations & Maintenance staff had real-time access to micro-weather forecasts from commercial vendors, they would know this, and be able to schedule the servicings of their turbines on low-wind days, thus minimizing human safety events while lowering costs.
Analyses using datasets that are more comprehensive not only helps wind farms, but also the people investing in them. If energy traders could compare global weather forecasts with global wind farm production forecasts and then compare these with predictions regarding energy demand, they could optimize their trading activities and earn higher returns, just for implementing a more comprehensive data-driven approach.
New, more comprehensive data analysis tools enable us to inform our decisions in ways that our ancestors harnessing wind power through sails never could have imagined, but these decisions are only as informed as the data we have available to include in our analyses. By expanding our datasets to include all available and relevant data, the wind energy industry can surpass its historical efficiency gains and accelerate the success of the renewable energy market.
Originally published at planetos.com on July 25, 2016.
