AI, Drones, & Digital Twins Help Renewable Energy Persist In US

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The renewable energy outlook for the US is on shaky ground for now, but US presidents come and go. Meanwhile, the wind and the sun are forever. The energy transition will continue regardless of who occupies the White House, with a healthy assist from the march of technology. Three interweaving breakthroughs — AI, drones, and digital twins — have emerged to cut costs and build new efficiencies into renewable energy systems.

Renewable Energy & AI

AI has been taking a lot of flack for burdening the nation’s electricity grid, but when the dust settles the result could be a big win for renewable energy and climate action.

That’s the conclusion of a new research paper produced by the firm Systemiq and the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, published in the journal Climate Action on June 23 under the title, “Green and Intelligent: The Role of AI in the Climate Transition.”

While the authors take note of the limitations of their research, they assert that the carbon savings from climate-focused use of AI will more than offset the entire field of AI usage.

Under the climate-focused category the authors list transforming complex systems, innovating technology discovery and resource efficiency, nudging and behavioral change, modeling climate systems and policy interventions, and managing resilience and adaptation.

“In the power sector, the authors find that AI can improve the efficiency of renewable energy systems by greatly improving grid management and increasing the load factor of solar photovoltaics and wind by as much as 20%,” the Grantham Institute explains.

“The authors state that ‘AI can also be used to better predict investment risks and returns, improving financial decisions where information is scarcer, particularly in emerging markets where perceived risk is high, often due to limited and asymmetric information,’” Grantham adds.

AI or not, new high-performing computers are also contributing to the pace of electricity demand and the solutions as well. Here in the US, last year the National Renewable Energy Laboratory catalogued Energy Department funding for more than 425 energy innovation projects that deployed the agency’s Kestrel high performing system, which focuses on renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Drones & Renewable Energy

The drone angle covers a lot of territory. Time and labor savings are big items when a single drone operator can send a flying surveying device up into the air.

The research and advisory firm DataM Intelligence has been tracking the role of drones in renewable energy development and their latest market report describes significant growth during the period 2024-2031. “Growth is driven by rising renewable energy installations, need for efficient inspection and maintenance, cost reduction benefits, and advancements in drone technology enhancing data accuracy and operational safety,” DataM reports.

“The Renewable Drone Market involves the development, production, and deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) designed for renewable energy sectors such as solar, wind, and hydro,” DataM adds. “These drones support inspection, maintenance, monitoring, and surveying operations, enhancing efficiency, safety, and cost-effectiveness while enabling data-driven decision-making for optimizing renewable energy infrastructure performance.”

Of course, the tariff situation here in the US could complicate matters for the domestic drone market. On the plus side, though, DataM takes note of the Federal Aviation Administration, which is moving towards expanding the use of commercial drones into the all-important BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) area. “The proposed regulation strongly supported by the Commercial Drone Alliance aims to reduce bureaucratic hurdles and enable wider adoption of drones for delivery, surveying, and renewable energy applications,” DataM notes.

To gild the renewable energy lily, solar powered drones began surfacing on the CleanTechnica radar about 10 years ago. Drones equipped with solar panels can fly longer, making them useful for offshore wind farm surveillance and other remote sites.

The Digital Twin Connection

Digital twins are systems that use real-time data to simulate a real-world operation. NASA takes credit for pioneering the use of simulations on Earth to solve problems in space going back to the 1960s, the Apollo 13 mission of 1970 being one particularly dramatic example. With 55+ years worth of improvements in data analysis and computer technology, digital twins are now in widespread use.

The technology is also far more sophisticated than earlier iterations, which depended partly on physical models. Two-dimensional representations are also becoming old hat. Today’s digital twins can produce immersive experiences that provide a more information-rich environment.

The question is how useful are digital twins for renewable energy systems. A research team based at RISE University in the United Arab Emirates undertook a comprehensive review of the literature to help answer that question, with a focus on the use of digital twins to resolve challenges related to the intermittent nature of wind and solar energy, along with weather-related complications and energy storage factors.

“A digital twin (DT) is an effective way to tackle these challenges,” the researchers note. “This technology utilizes adaptive models to simulate the real-time performance of physical systems in a digital environment, helping to predict and prevent potential system failures.”

“Moreover, other digital technologies will enhance the energy efficiency, save costs, carry out predictive maintenance, improve operations, and prolong the system’s lifetime,” they add, noting that a vast amount of real time data is available from today’s generation of on-site sensors.

On a more cautionary note, the researchers advise that digital twins must be tailored to different kinds of renewable energy. They must also account for lifecycle changes, and the data itself can be extremely complex. “The data required is related to the physical system, including the real-time data, the geometry of each component, weather data, historical forecasting, experimental and practical data, and previous issues from former applications,” the research team reminds everyone.

What Is This American Energy Dominance Of Which You Speak?

As for the current state of US energy policy, it’s no secret that in just seven short months the federal government has devolved from a fairly capable representation of a modern democracy to an instrument of unrestrained personal power wielded by a malevolently incompetent Commander-in-Chief.

One result of that is the new “American Energy Dominance” plan, which reflects nothing more that President Donald Trump’s personal vendetta against wind turbines, masked by an insistence on “baseload” power generation that excludes solar energy along with wind.

How else to describe an energy plan that throttles down investment in the most abundant, accessible, and affordable energy resources in the US today? If you can think of something else, drop a note in the comment thread.

Before you do that, recall that the American Energy Dominance plan does not cast stones at all forms of renewable energy, just wind and solar. Geothermal, hydropower, and biomass all get free rein to compete against fossil fuels. So does nuclear energy, for that matter. Go figure…

Image (screenshot, cropped): Next-generation digital twins can provide renewable energy planners and developers with an immersive, information-rich environment (courtesy of NREL).