Skip to Content
Artificial intelligence

DeepMind’s AI is predicting how much energy Google’s wind turbines will produce

February 27, 2019

Google’s subsidiary DeepMind has created a machine-learning model to boost the use of wind power by predicting its likely output 36 hours ahead.

Drawbacks: Although the adoption of wind power has grown thanks to cheaper turbine costs, it will always suffer from unpredictability. That limits it compared with other energy sources that can reliably deliver power at a set time.

An experiment: To help solve this problem, last year DeepMind started building algorithms to boost the efficacy of Google’s wind farms in the US, according to a blog post. Researchers trained a neural network on weather forecasts and past turbine data, so it could predict power output 36 hours ahead. On this basis, the model recommends how to allocate power to the grid a full day in advance. This boosted the “value” of Google’s wind farms by about 20%, DeepMind claims, though it hasn’t really specified what form what value takes, or how it’s measured.

Implications: While it’s only been tested out internally so far, it’s not hard to imagine Google hoping to sell this technology to wind farm operators. And it’s another boost to Google’s carbon-free credentials

Deep Dive

Artificial intelligence

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

Google DeepMind’s new generative model makes Super Mario–like games from scratch

Genie learns how to control games by watching hours and hours of video. It could help train next-gen robots too.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.