A technology company is leveraging AI to solve one of offshore wind farms' biggest challenges.
U.K.-based Beam recently launched AI-driven underwater vehicles capable of carrying out autonomous inspections of wind farms, as Interesting Engineering details.
Offshore wind is a cutting-edge green energy source that is rapidly growing globally. The labor-intensive, costly, and lengthy inspections are ripe for innovation. That's where Beam, a deep tech company, is stepping in.
Beam CEO Brian Allen said in a press release that "automation can revolutionize how we carry out inspection and maintenance of offshore wind farms." The company asserts the AI-driven vehicles lower inspection time by up to 50% while delivering higher-quality images and valuable 3D reconstructions compared to manual ones.
Using AI instead of multiple offshore workers also frees them up to do more complex tasks instead of spending hours doing remote inspections. The company shared a video illuminating the tech on their official YouTube account.
This isn't just theoretical, either. Beam says Scotland's biggest offshore wind farm, Seagreen, has already successfully put the underwater vehicles to use. It's notable that the Seagreen wind farm is also the deepest fixed-bottom one of its kind in the world, per the press release.
Beam's innovation is another positive step for green energy and wind power. While Seagreen is a fixed-bottom farm, offshore floating wind farms are rapidly becoming an option for countries like Japan with geographical challenges. The success of typhoon-proof wind turbines, like Mingyang Farm's OceanX, through extreme weather like Super Typhoon Yagi is another valuable development for the industry.
Zooming out, countries and companies are trying to move away from dirty energy that is warming oceans and the planet to dangerous temperatures. Using new tech to cut down on costs and run more efficiently will help make green energy cost-competitive with fuels like oil and coal.
It's worth noting that the U.K. has been a leader in clean energy, recently registering its greenest summer ever. Wind energy was up 40% year-over-year, leading the way for clean energy growth. Breakthroughs like Beam autonomous AI vehicles can accelerate that trend for wind by cutting down costs and optimizing maintenance.
Beam is targeting a full rollout of the AI-powered underwater vehicles across its fleet in 2025 and 2026 and is emboldened by the new tech's successful rollout with Seagreen.
Allen noted, "the potential of this technology is huge for the industry, and success in these initial projects is vital for us to progress and realize this vision."
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