HUSUM, Germany, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Digitalization, artificial intelligence (AI) and smart manufacturing are rapidly transforming the wind energy value chain, pointing toward a smarter and more connected future for the industry. That momentum is on full display at HUSUM WIND 2025, Germany's flagship trade fair for the wind sector.
Running from Tuesday to Friday in the northern port city of Husum, the event brings together around 600 exhibitors from across the globe to showcase advances in onshore and offshore wind, green hydrogen, energy storage and digital solutions under the motto "Leading Through Innovation."
China's SANY Renewable Energy stood out by presenting a vision of a sustainable future powered by intelligent manufacturing, full life-cycle solutions and global cooperation. Its booth drew a steady flow of visitors, with strong interest from European clients.
Xu Yuejian, the company's general manager of overseas marketing, said SANY has been upgrading its manufacturing system in recent years by building highly digitalized and intelligent wind turbine production lines in China.
He noted that the country's vast domestic market provides a natural testing ground for these innovations and offers valuable experience for global expansion.
Mingyang Smart Energy also highlighted the transformative potential of AI and digitalization across the entire wind industry, from design and manufacturing to operations, maintenance and supply chain management.
Zhang Chao, the company's senior vice president, said the true value of AI lies in its "self-evolving" capability. Once sufficient data is accumulated, AI-driven systems can optimize models to generate efficient designs or scheduling plans, enabling intelligent coordination across multiple processes.
"This is our vision for future smart wind power plants," Zhang said. "It means going beyond simple digital replication to harness AI for intelligent coordination across the full process chain, ultimately achieving the optimal balance of efficiency, quality and cost."
German energy companies are also showcasing how AI can advance smart operations and environmental protection. EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG introduced Asset Radar, a cloud-based application that uses AI to detect data anomalies in wind, hydro and photovoltaic plants at an early stage, helping to prevent failures, avoid consequential damage and reduce maintenance costs.
Company expert Meik Schlechtingen said that while AI currently focuses on anomaly detection, future iterations will deliver automated diagnoses, allowing experts to concentrate on more complex problems. "As the amount of data per plant continues to rise, automation is becoming increasingly important and manual evaluations will soon no longer be practical," he noted.
Beyond operations and maintenance, AI is being used to support ecological conservation. Germany's RWE presented its SeaMe project, a three-year initiative running from 2024 to 2026 to monitor marine ecosystems at one of its offshore wind farms.
Instead of using emission-intensive aircraft, vessels or intrusive fishing methods, the project deploys drones with AI cameras to track birds and marine mammals, autonomous underwater vehicles to survey fish and benthic organisms, and AI-powered cameras above and below the water for continuous wildlife monitoring.
"With the project, we are embracing new technologies that allow us to monitor a range of factors simultaneously," said Thomas Michel, chief operating officer of RWE Offshore Wind. "This approach gives us a deeper understanding of the interactions between offshore wind and the marine ecosystem." ■
