
TOKYO -- Japanese wind turbines will spin smarter as General Electric offers technology that forecasts power output via artificial intelligence, helping to boost overall efficiency and stabilize energy supplies from a source susceptible to changing weather.
The AI correlates past weather and turbine operation data to predict output up to a week in advance, in increments ranging from five minutes to an hour. It makes individual forecasts by turbine, as propellers at different heights face different wind speeds. With these fine-grained predictions, it can stop turbines for maintenance checks on low-output days, raising overall output.