In 2022, globally utility scale wind and solar PV electricity generation could lose $22 billion from fixable technical underperformance issues. While this issue is being met head-on in wind by project owners hiring innovative firms like Clir which use data to guide service providers in addressing asset performance issues, in solar this has in many instances remained an afterthought.
To date, solar O&M has been shaped by an over-reliance on inward-looking SCADA data. This data must be set in its geospatial context and be fed through a common model that considers all available on-site sensors or else owners simply do not know whether underperformance is due to a fault with the panel, cloud cover, or shade caused by the immediate environment.
Clir’s AI-driven monitoring and optimisation offering aims to address the glaring gaps in the solar market.
“A lack of O&M innovation in recent years has resulted in project owners missing out on the performance potential of their solar assets” said Gareth Brown, Chief Executive Officer of Clir. “The market has become a race to the bottom, with everyone spending as little as possible on O&M and asset management – a key part of which is high-quality, comprehensive, and properly-labelled data collection. This has not gone unnoticed by our long-standing wind clients that also hold solar assets”.
Clir’s artificial intelligence analyses solar asset health and performance data in the context of their environment, building an algorithm designed to support owners in developing a true understanding of the behaviour of each asset and its relationship not just to its peers, but to the fleet and, eventually, the industry as a whole. This means that asset owners can identify not only when there is underperformance, but the root cause.
“We are rolling out our solar offering to the market with a phased, milestone-based approach in order to ensure our service meets our clients’ needs and fully addresses the relevant gaps in the market before moving onto the next” added Mr Brown. “Forward-thinking solar project owners who haven’t yet worked with us are also welcome to join us in shaping the future of solar O&M – just get in touch and we can discuss how we can meet your performance needs.”
Clir has been working to tackle the issue of industry-wide underperformance for wind since 2017, with the firm’s AI-driven analysis and expert team supporting asset owners in increased AEP by up to 5 percent across more that 6 GW of onshore and offshore wind – with multiple solar projects already onboarded for phase one.
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