The overlooked opportunity in wind energy: making hardware work smarter

The wind industry has always been driven by innovation. Taller towers, longer blades, and more efficient turbines have powered the sector’s growth, pushing performance boundaries and enabling the generation of more clean energy. But as wind farms age and capital-intensive upgrades become more complex, we need to ask: are we making the most of the hardware we already have?

For years, the focus has been on installing new technology to drive efficiency. But what if the key to unlocking more energy is hidden in the turbines that are already spinning? The next frontier in wind energy we need to continue to deploy at pace whilst optimising what’s already in place through smarter performance strategies.

The hidden potential in every wind farm

Wind conditions vary by site, and like any form of machinery components degrade over time. Even identical turbine models behave differently based on their surroundings. Factory settings are a great starting point, but they aren’t customised to real-world conditions. This means that many turbines, right now, aren’t performing at their full potential.

This is why RES has developed TuneUp – a solution designed to optimise wind turbine performance by adjusting control settings to better match actual site conditions. TuneUp fine-tunes turbines to unlock efficiency improvements without requiring major hardware upgrades. The process is data-driven, using high-frequency turbine data and proprietary analysis models to identify optimisation opportunities tailored to specific turbine models and site characteristics.

These optimisations can lead to an increase in Annual Energy Production (AEP) by up to 2% – a seemingly small percentage, but one that translates into significant additional energy over a project’s lifetime. For example, on a 20MW wind farm, this 2% boost could generate enough clean energy to power over 500 homes for a year.

For instance, at a recent wind farm in the UK, we implemented TuneUp to increase the performance of the aging turbines. Through advanced high-frequency data analysis leading to fine-tuning turbine control settings we delivered an additional 1.0% of energy uplift – demonstrating the power of optimising existing assets without the need for major infrastructure changes.

Why this matters for the industry

At a time when we need to be increasing the amount of clean energy generation, maximising the performance of existing assets is more important than ever. The industry has spent decades perfecting hardware, and those advances have been game changing. But what’s missing is a smarter approach to how that hardware operates in the real world.

Digital solutions like TuneUp don’t replace hardware innovation – they enhance it. By using a data-driven approach to turbine optimisation, operators can refine parameters such as yaw alignment, pitch control, and power curves, ensuring turbines run as efficiently as possible without the need for costly hardware upgrades.

Rethinking the future of wind performance

As the energy transition accelerates, the pressure is on to increase renewable output efficiently and cost-effectively. That doesn’t mean abandoning hardware innovation – it means complementing it with smarter digital solutions that make turbines work harder and smarter.

The wind industry has spent decades refining turbine technology. The next step? Ensuring every turbine is performing at its best. Because in a competitive energy market, making the most of every megawatt isn’t just an advantage – it’s a necessity.

Find out more about TuneUp.