This document represents an expert view from future emerging technologies within the wind energy sector considering their potential, challenges, applications and technology readiness and how they might evolve in the next five years

Against this backdrop, respondents to Wind Energy Science Technology Innovation Survey ranked Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) as the top driver of the wind power business transformation over the next five years.

This result comes as no surprise given how broad and far reaching the category of this technology is. From advanced management and visualization software to smart grids, everything feels “intelligent” these days and is linked with a myriad of devices and applications to build a highly intelligent eco-system.

Integrating existing plant IT with “intelligent” and connected physical assets is the foundation of the Industry 4.0 movement. Increased automation to reduce operational risks and control costs is one reason IIoT makes sense for manufacturers and wind plant operators. For wind operators, Industry 4.0 means obtaining specific and critical operational data incredibly data and much more reliable. The IIoT ranked as the most important technology among the responders, surpassing Artificial Intelligence.

We also questioned a group of millennials the same questions as the broader group of middle adulthood (Ages 40–60) wind energy specialists about the technologies they consider to lead the business transformation of the wind power industry over the next five years. While their responses similarly show Artificial Intelligence, Industrial Internet of Things, and Big Data near the top, other selections like advanced power electronics, digital resource assessment and mega-data platforms are also mentioned.

This importance makes security even more imperative. Failure to secure IoT devices and their connected ecosystem could prevent a company from delivering services, protecting sensitive data, or even keeping the wind energy plant perform well. Few companies know how to get started even though they recognize the need for a comprehensive IIoT transformation. Many industrial systems were designed without considerations of connectivity. Therefore, they must rely on extremely secure, perimeter-based systems to protect assets from intrusions and attacks, which provide a high level of analytics.

A dominant characteristic of the Wind Energy Technology Innovation Survey is that while the top technologies was essentially the same among other similar surveys over the last two years, the order this year changed dramatically. Big Data and Intelligence-Automatic remote monitoring both jumped up significantly in this year’s ranking.