Norwegian utility Statkraft has closed a large investment in wind-turbine-blade-inspector SkySpecs, pushing the fast growing robotics company closer to upscaling its international operations.

Statkraft Ventures together with UL Ventures, Capital Midwest and existing investors closed an $8m financing round for Michigan, US-based SkySpecs.

The investors said SkySpecs helps drive down costs in the sector by making rotor blade inspections more precise and safe, while making operations cheaper compared to traditional methods.

SkySpecs combines expertise in robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine-based analytics to advance renewable infrastructure inspection. The company’s guiding mission is to play a critical role in the smart grid evolution by helping to make renewable energy more accessible and attainable.

It provides fifteen-minute inspections that require only the push of a button - and no additional human oversight, keeping active maintenance and waiting time to a minimum. Last year the robotics company completed more than 3,600 turbine inspections in the US and Europe.

“We are excited to have Statkraft Ventures on board; as a very knowledgeable lead investor in the renewable energy markets they can support us to scale our international operations and to further enable our customers to decide what, when and at which price repairs or maintenance is to be done,” said Danny Ellis, chief executive of SkySpecs.

“We consider standardisation and automation of O&M related tasks the next big challenge in cost competition after hardware costs for renewable energy assets have dropped significantly over the last years,” added Alexander Kueppers, investment manager at Statkraft Ventures.

“Their technological expertise combined with scalable operations is the key to grow the business worldwide.”