0:02

Latitude Media, podcasts at the

0:04

frontier of climate technology. Wind

0:13

and solar projects are relatively simple to build

0:15

compared to thermal power plants, but

0:17

there's a lot of technological innovation behind

0:20

the scenes going into how these renewable

0:22

plants are designed, constructed, and optimized, driven

0:24

by robots, artificial intelligence, and data science.

0:27

So can these technologies help offset

0:30

higher labor costs, rising financing costs,

0:32

and supply chain constraints? I'm

0:37

Stephen Lacey. I'm the executive editor at

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Latitude Media, and this is the latitude

0:41

dispatches from the new frontiers of climate

0:44

technology. Each week we bring

0:46

you stories from our journalists and columnists

0:48

reporting at the commercial edge of the

0:50

energy transition. And in this edition, editor

0:52

Lisa Martin Jenkins presents a story from

0:54

the pages of Latitude Media called Bigger,

0:56

Faster, Cheaper. The renewables industry looks to

0:58

new tech to drive efficiency. Better,

1:10

faster, cheaper, safer? The

1:12

renewables industry looks to new tech to drive

1:15

efficiency. In a stretch of

1:17

desert southwest of Phoenix, a robotic arm grabs

1:19

a solar panel off a wooden pallet, lifts

1:22

it high overhead, and slots it vertically onto

1:24

a conveyor belt. After

1:26

the arm positions eight panels in a row,

1:28

the belt pulls the panels along, while steel

1:30

tubing travels to meet them. Technicians

1:33

wait under a weighted awning to drill the

1:36

pieces together, before they're loaded onto a truck,

1:38

which ferries them away to be incorporated into

1:40

a larger array. This automated

1:42

system, which finished its first project in

1:44

November, is the brainchild of

1:46

Terabase, a solar company that sets up bare

1:48

bones panel assembly lines right on a project

1:51

site to make installation easier. Like

1:53

many industries, the renewable energy sector

1:55

is increasingly looking to incorporate technologies

1:58

like automation and artificial intelligence. which

2:00

companies see as potential antidotes to challenges

2:03

like a tight labor supply at high interest rates. Solar

2:06

panel prices are extremely low now, said

2:08

Matt Campbell, Carer basis CEO, but

2:11

the soft costs keep going up, not down. And

2:13

the only way, in my view, to drive

2:15

soft costs down is through software and robotics.

2:18

In 2023, solar module prices

2:20

fell by more than 30

2:22

percent. The fall was less pronounced in

2:24

the United States due to trade duties, but

2:26

the overall trend has been years of precipitous

2:29

hardware cost declines. Campbell,

2:31

a former vice president at SunPower, sees

2:33

driving down soft costs as the last

2:35

frontier in utility-scale solar. Today,

2:38

those costs account for 65 percent of

2:40

the cost stock for large projects, and

2:42

bringing them down poses an intractable challenge.

2:45

How do I make an engineer 10 percent

2:47

more efficient, or how do I make a

2:49

project manager 20 percent more competent, said Campbell?

2:51

Those are squishy things. How do I even measure that?

2:54

Many developers think cutting-edge tools can drive

2:56

development efficiencies, which they say are needed

2:58

to preserve profits and deploy the record-busting

3:01

amount of clean energy that fighting climate

3:03

change requires. That automated

3:05

and efficient future, if it's reached,

3:07

remains years off. But developers

3:10

are hopeful that newer technologies like

3:12

robots, drones, and AI could change

3:14

how projects are cited, designed, built,

3:16

and managed. A growing

3:18

number of technology-forward startups have hinged their success

3:20

on the rise of automation. Parabase

3:23

hopes its automated installation system ultimately helps

3:25

to lower projects' levelized cost of electricity

3:28

by more than 10 percent. Thus

3:31

far, the company says its infield

3:33

factory increases installation productivity by

3:36

two times over standard construction, which

3:38

requires many workers using hand tools spread

3:40

throughout a large site. Another

3:43

startup, Built Robotics, has designed a robot

3:45

that automates pile driving using GPS and

3:47

a machine that looks like your average

3:49

excavator. The company says the

3:51

machine can drive three times the number of piles

3:53

in a day that a manual solar crew could.

3:56

And Precision Hawk, a tech startup that's partnered with

3:58

Equinor, uses... drones to inspect

4:01

wind sites, including offshore, reducing the

4:03

need for human inspectors to climb

4:05

tall towers. But more traditional

4:07

companies are also flirting with automation. LightSource

4:10

BP, one of the largest solar asset owners

4:12

in the U.S., has experimented

4:14

with robotic mowers and inspectors. The

4:17

company's head of innovation and operational excellence,

4:19

Kevin Klisty, said using those technologies

4:21

can be challenging, though, because the tech is

4:23

evolving at the same time that users like

4:25

LightSource are experimenting with how to use it

4:27

effectively. Furthermore, certain processes

4:30

like mowing grass around solar

4:32

panels already have low-tech, low-labor

4:34

options available. LightSource, for

4:36

example, employs sheep to munch around

4:38

its panels at certain projects. Klisty

4:41

sees on-site inspection as a more promising

4:43

route for automation with robots. At

4:46

one of its projects in Texas, LightSource

4:48

is working with a company called On-Site

4:50

Robotics that uses AI and an autonomous

4:53

vehicle to inspect sites for up to

4:55

12 hours a day. Eventually, Klisty envisions

4:57

renewable projects saturated with sensors,

4:59

gathering data and monitoring equipment in real

5:01

time. I call it Sensors

5:03

Everywhere, where basically the number and

5:06

type of sensors on a project will proliferate

5:08

over time as it becomes lower and

5:10

lower cost to measure more and more points throughout the

5:12

system, he said. With the rise

5:14

of automation, these systems are likely to create a

5:17

lot more data. Already, companies

5:19

are experimenting with software to process that

5:21

information. And some companies are

5:23

seeing the potential for software to go one

5:25

step further, using AI to help

5:27

drive decision-making. Solar hardware supplier Nextracker

5:29

now offers a product that uses

5:32

machine learning to determine when hail

5:34

poses a significant enough threat to

5:36

prompt panels to move from horizontal to

5:39

nearly vertical. In recent years,

5:41

hail has become a significant concern for the

5:43

industry because of the damage it can

5:45

cause panels, says Vincotta Abaraju, the

5:48

Director of Technical Product Management. Since

5:50

2020, Kristi at LightSource said insurance

5:53

companies have shifted from the usual

5:55

all-risk contract to identifying

5:57

several sub-risks in certain geographies for

5:59

solar. project coverage, each

6:01

with its own deductible. For LightSource's

6:04

largest projects in Texas, the

6:06

deductible for whole is nearly

6:08

$13 million, encouraging the company

6:10

and its peers to find ways to mitigate risk.

6:13

Like NextTracker, LightSource is also automating

6:15

the panel's stowing process, but without

6:17

using AI. NextTracker has rolled

6:19

out a system that uses digital twin technology,

6:21

which creates a virtual copy of a physical

6:24

site, along with on-site data processing

6:26

and algorithms to change the angle of panels

6:28

on different rows, allowing them

6:30

to capture more sun. Terabase also

6:32

creates digital twins for certain projects, specifically

6:35

to manage construction on heat. Drones

6:38

capture images of the site and AI

6:40

processes information contained in the images to

6:42

determine how construction is progressing. The

6:45

software is equally if not more important in

6:47

terms of making things more productive and efficient,

6:49

said Campbell. Campbell said Terabase

6:51

has sold its construction products to 5

6:53

gigawatts of projects that are either underway

6:55

or already completed. So

6:57

far, Terabase has partnered with companies

6:59

including Intersect Power, Leaverd Energy, and

7:01

First Solar. Still, these applications are

7:04

novel rather than the norm. All

7:06

of them are in very early stages, said

7:08

Abaraju at NextTracker, and Kristi said they're too

7:10

new to have yet had a measurable impact.

7:13

Bloomberg N.E.F. solar analyst Jenny

7:15

Chase said Solar is already so

7:17

cheap that there isn't much need for these types

7:19

of technologies. She attributes the

7:22

interest, particularly in AI, to

7:24

venture capital buzzing on the latest buzzword. Solar

7:27

is infrastructure. It's not something that

7:29

can necessarily be revolutionized by changes in software,

7:31

she said. However, she added, soft costs are

7:33

much higher in the U.S. than the rest

7:35

of the world, so there may be more

7:38

potential to cut costs there using new tech.

7:40

But she also argued that structural shifts, like

7:42

changes to the permitting system, could be

7:44

more meaningful. Still, developers

7:46

remain animated about the potential for new

7:49

technologies to change their work. Abaraju

7:51

envisions automation adoption increasing to

7:53

the point where the technology has a

7:55

hand to play in more than 50% of

7:57

the development process. of

8:00

years, Christie also expects that automation will be central

8:02

to more parts of the process. Late

8:05

Source's innovation team's motto, he said,

8:07

is better, faster, cheaper, safer. When

8:10

we're confronted by higher interest rates,

8:12

tighter labor supply, higher supply chain

8:14

costs, longer lead times, and unfortunately,

8:16

sadly to say, declining quality and

8:18

reliability, then we need to find

8:20

ways to leverage technology to start mitigating some of

8:22

those issues he had as well.

8:28

The Latitude is hosted by me, Stephen

8:30

Lacy and Lisa Martine Jenkins. Our engineers

8:32

are Sean Markwon and Roy Campanello III,

8:35

and the theme song was composed by

8:37

Sean Markwon. If you like what

8:39

you hear, go to latitudemedia.com, check out all our

8:41

stories, and sign up for our newsletter, and you'll

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get all our coverage right there in your inbox,

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or follow us on LinkedIn or X for

8:48

editorial updates. This is the

8:51

Latitude, dispatches from the new frontier

8:53

of climate technology. Thank

8:58

you.