How AI is cleaning up our Oceans

13 May 2021 01:51 PM

AI has been at the heart of change for many industries. Right now, it is the responsibility of every industry to become more sustainable and AI technologies can help to do this. Vaarst, marine technology business is using AI to help energy companies reduce their carbon footprint. #AIWeek2021

Offshore wind is proving particularly popular in governments’ energy strategies, given plummeting costs and the fact turbines can be placed ever further from coastlines. As a result, the compound annual growth rate of offshore wind generation in the next five years is predicted by the GWEC to be nearly 32 per cent, compared to 0.3 per cent with land-based turbines.

Offshore wind is not without its negative externalities however and the turbines and other offshore structures require extensive maintenance. This maintenance often requires companies to send out large crews on large boats; boats that can cost £1 to £10 million per month to operate and create 275,000 tonnes of carbon emissions in their lifetime.

By using AI to automate processes that might take one person 100 hours to complete. Vaarst’s real-time 3D modelling platform also enables some crew members to work from land. All this culminates in energy companies needing fewer people at sea for less time at sea, on a smaller more environmentally friendly vessel: All thanks to AI.

This piece from Brian Allen, founder and CEO of Vaarst, will explore how applying AI to a traditionally “dirty” industry can clean up our oceans, and how that technology could be applied in future in challenging environments, including nuclear landscapes, and those unfit for humans.

You can read all insights from techUK's AI Week here