Digital Twins in Wind Energy: Emerging Technologies and Industry-Informed Future Directions

TL;DR

This paper reviews digital twin technology in wind energy, categorizes its capability levels, assesses current industry applications, and proposes future research directions and stakeholder recommendations.

Contribution

It synthesizes current knowledge on digital twins in wind energy and identifies future research needs and challenges from an industry perspective.

Findings

Digital twin capability levels range from 0 to 5.

Current applications are mainly descriptive and diagnostic.

Future directions include predictive and prescriptive capabilities.

Abstract

This article presents a comprehensive overview of the digital twin technology and its capability levels, with a specific focus on its applications in the wind energy industry. It consolidates the definitions of digital twin and its capability levels on a scale from 0-5; 0-standalone, 1-descriptive, 2-diagnostic, 3-predictive, 4-prescriptive, 5-autonomous. It then, from an industrial perspective, identifies the current state of the art and research needs in the wind energy sector. The article proposes approaches to the identified challenges from the perspective of research institutes and offers a set of recommendations for diverse stakeholders to facilitate the acceptance of the technology. The contribution of this article lies in its synthesis of the current state of knowledge and its identification of future research needs and challenges from an industry perspective, ultimately providing a roadmap for future research and development in the field of digital twin and its applications in the wind energy industry.