Digital Catapult, in partnership with the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult and Ørsted, the global leader in offshore wind, is unlocking deep tech innovation in offshore wind through collaboration with two UK innovators. AIM Group and Entopy were selected through the Digital Innovation Challenge to adapt and enhance existing digital and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, with the aim of strengthening offshore wind operations and maintenance (O&M) and equipping the UK industry to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving energy landscape.
Offshore wind farms generate significant amounts of data which could be leveraged to inform and advance decision-making, strengthening O&M capabilities and unlocking benefits such as enhanced safety, cost-savings, and improved operational efficiency. The Digital Innovation Challenge will enable the maturation of AI-led solutions to determine how data can drive progress by reducing the operational costs and safety risks associated with operating and maintaining offshore wind farms across the UK.
For the challenge, AIM Group will look at how AI can be used to transform structural risk management across man-made assets, detecting tiny changes as early-stage defects and forecasting how they will evolve over time, with 99% accuracy. The second innovator, Entopy, is pioneering ‘Unified Operational Intelligence’ for complex infrastructure systems, helping decision-makers to understand how events propagate across operations, and enabling better oversight of where small disruptions can create large cascading impacts.
As part of the programme, Digital Catapult will support both innovators by providing innovation and technological consultancy, ethical, and responsible AI guidance, and considerations for the successful implementation of their AI innovations in offshore wind farm operations. ORE Catapult will strengthen the innovators’ understanding of the sector, ensuring that the adapted solutions have strong product-market fit, while outlining the inter-dependencies, complexities, and data structure of offshore wind asset management.
As the offshore wind industry continues to grow in the UK, the number of assets entering the O&M phase of the life cycle is set to grow significantly, increasing the demand for efficient, cost-effective, and scalable solutions that can accelerate the broader digitalisation of offshore wind O&M. As part of the programme, the innovators will receive support from Ørsted and both Catapults over six months, with opportunities to partner with Ørsted to further develop the solutions, and potentially pilot them within Ørsted’s global portfolio, including its 12 operational UK offshore wind farms.
Alex Louden, Head of UK&IE Innovation Hub, Ørsted, said: “Ørsted has the largest operating offshore wind fleet in the UK, and we know there is untapped potential from the data we already have that digital and AI solutions can unlock. Through the Digital Innovation Challenge competition phase, we scouted the incredible breadth of solutions being developed in the UK across different sectors. Now, we get to work much more closely with two of the most promising solutions, developed by AIM Group and Entopy. These solutions can enable greater insight into our assets’ health and improve our operational decision-making. The support provided through the challenge will help AIM Group and Entopy increase the technical maturity of their solutions in offshore wind and nail down product-market fit.”
Jessica Rushworth, Chief Partnerships Officer, Digital Catapult, added: “The UK is a global leader in offshore wind as the world’s second-largest market, generating around 17% of the country’s electricity. Maintaining this position will require continued deep tech innovation to meet growing demand and strengthen long-term energy resilience that will equip the UK to be future ready. That progress can only be mobilised through meaningful partnership between innovators, industry leaders and innovation organisations, and Digital Catapult is proud to partner with Ørsted and Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult to demonstrate how collaboration can drive tangible progress towards a more sustainable and efficient energy future.”
Magnus Willett, Principal Portfolio Manager – Business Development, ORE Catapult, commented: “We have been impressed by the quality of submissions to the O&M Digital Innovation Challenge and relish this fruitful partnership with Digital Catapult and Ørsted. We look forward to working closely with the successful teams from AIM Group and Entopy to further their understanding of the offshore wind sector and the unique operational challenges which their AI-driven solutions can potentially help to address.”
Callum Alder, CEO, AIM Group, stated: “We’re genuinely excited to join the Ørsted O&M Digital Innovation Challenge. Over the past few years we’ve worked with infrastructure asset owners who face a similar problem to wind: huge volumes of data, not enough predictable or actionable insights. Over the coming months we hope to prove a simple, repeatable framework that any wind operator can use to cut avoidable downtime, plan campaigns with more confidence, and get the most value from the data they already collect.” James Human, Head of Business Development, Entopy, concluded: “We are delighted to have been selected for the Ørsted O&M Digital Innovation Challenge, particularly as one of just two companies chosen from a highly competitive list of applicants. Working with Ørsted provides a powerful opportunity to apply and validate Entopy’s Unified Intelligence technology within offshore wind operations, alongside a global leader in innovation and asset performance. The tailored support from both ORE Catapult and the Digital Catapult is invaluable at this stage of our growth. We are excited to be working with such a high calibre cohort.”
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