The dotcom boom in the late 1990s and early 2000s saw countless internet companies push their stock valuations higher than ever before seen.

The “new economy” that digitalised the stock keeping units (SKUs) of consumer goods caused changes in consumer behaviour, from brick and mortar shopping to more convenient online ordering. When the dotcom bubble burst, many start-ups crashed and burned, but a few pushed through and continue to be at the top of the value chain – like Amazon.

We’re at the beginning of a new bell curve – a second wave called the Industrial Internet, IoT. The industry is digitalising industrial equipment to once again change behaviours – think Uber and AirBnb’s transformative shift in the taxi and hotel industries driving new efficiencies, new conveniences that we now take for granted.

We’re seeing a similar shift in the wind industry that combines the use of physical sciences – materials science, tribology and multi-body dynamic physics – with data science, to drive new efficiencies between the operators and suppliers.

The overlap between operators and suppliers is the digital Bill of Materials, a digital representation of all components in a wind turbine. When looking at major component failure rates, operational changes and upgrading of subcomponents can slow or stop failure progression and extend the life of the turbine.

By understanding the performance and expected life of major and minor components of the wind turbine, operators can move away from buying on price and delivery, and begin to buy wind turbines and aftermarket services on life, not just price. We call this “Buy on Life”, which will transform the wind industry and force cost reductions and performance improvements.

Jill Szpylman is director of IR, PR & communications at Sentient Science, the Digitalisation Partner at the Global Wind Summit and organiser of The Wind Challenge.

Wind

'"Buy on Life" can transform the wind industry'