AI Robot Installs America's Largest Solar Farm

Maximo, an AI robot from AES Corporation, helps speed up construction and reduce labor costs at a solar project in Kern County, California.

Announced on July 31, Maximo is capable of lifting solar panels and placing them precisely in long rows thanks to its built-in AI. The robot is being used to build the Kern County Solar Farm, one of the largest solar farms in the US when it is operational, and is expected to power Amazon’s data centers in the California region and elsewhere.

“We’re really focused on speed,” said Chris Shelton, chief product officer at AES, the US power generation and utility company, at the Maximo announcement in California. “We want to get the project up and running faster.”

Maximo robot lifting a solar panel. Photo: AES

Maximo can install panels twice as fast as a human and at half the cost, Shelton said. The robot has been tested in a variety of outdoor conditions at projects in New York, Virginia, Ohio and Louisiana, and has installed about 10 megawatts so far. The farm AES is building in Kern County is expected to have 200 times that capacity, or 2 gigawatts. Currently, Golmud in China is the world’s largest solar farm at 2.8 gigawatts, followed by Bhadla Solar Park in India at 2.7 gigawatts.

The US is pouring billions of dollars into renewable energy. The US government estimates in 2021 that the solar workforce will need at least 500,000 people by 2035 to meet the national goal of carbon-free electricity. Robots are helping to increase productivity and reduce labor costs.

But machines like Maximo also raise concerns that robots will take over from humans, the way automation has replaced some factory jobs in the past. Ron Rodrique, vice president of projects at AES Clean Energy, said Maximo doesn’t replace installation workers, but “helps with the safety aspect of taking some of the heavy lifting off people.”

Installing solar panels and battery storage systems is a laborious task, with each panel weighing more than 60 pounds and a row of 200 panels. “It’s a burden to use human power, especially in hot areas like the desert,” Rodrique said. “With robots and AI, humans can just sit in a control room. Workers can apply for this job, including people with disabilities.”

According to Rodrique, the project is just the beginning. If everything goes well, AES expects Maximo to help solve a series of solar energy projects in the next three years, with major customers being companies using large-scale data centers.

Bao Lam (according to Business Insider )

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