We just needed AI and satellite images

The last year exceeded all expectations Regarding the installation of renewable energy. However, until now we did not have a clear visual image of this phenomenon, but only with data to make comparisons. Now we can access that panoramic.

Short. The project GLOBAL RENEWABLE Watch It consists of a map created from satellite images and artificial intelligence models to show the expansion of solar and wind energy.

The initiative has been developed by Microsoft AI for Good Lab, in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy and Planet Labs PBC. In addition, Cornell University He has participated in the validation of the project.

The operation. The program itself has explained that they can identify, thanks to the AI, where it is more viable to install renewable projects, considering factors such as the availability of long -term land, the electrical infrastructure of all countries and the environmental impact. In addition, the Public Platform information in Github and uses an open source approach to guarantee transparency.

Accelerated growth. In a quick look at the program, it shows that energy has advanced at an unprecedented rate. In it we can see something that We already knew: China leads the installed capacity of solar and wind energy, with large projects that extend throughout the country with a capacity of 632,859.61 MW. This data is quite significant because in the data collected in the fourth quarter of 2017 it had 270,827.59MW, exceeding 133.68%.

Well below, but with a significant number it is the United States that is located with 285,974.11MW, exceeding 126.63%. The data show a considerable increase in the American country, but with Trump’s policies It seems that they will be maintained In that amount. For its part, in the case of the European Union, the most prominent case is Germany with 60,042.53MW, but its data at the beginning of data collection were not so low: 38,151.75MW. In fact, the case of Germany was expected by The rise of self -consumption with more than 500,000 solar panels installed on the balconies.

Spain’s capacity in solar and wind energy

And Spain? It is the next country that follows the EU. The data shown by the Atlas are of the second quarter of 2024, which reveal that the energy capacity in megawatts is 54,068.67 exceeding 127.93% the capacity of the fourth quarter of 2017. In addition, solar energy is the source that More has increased In the same time parameter, achieving more than 254.55%.

There are still things to polish. One of the main challenges is the handling of large volumes of data, since the platform processes the terabytes of satellite image and thousands of predictions related to solar and wind energy. In addition, for the data to be reliable, it requires a constant validation of the AI ​​algorithms.

Image | GLOBAL RENEWABLE Watch

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