Azure Digital Twins leverage the Internet of Things for powerful modeling that can facilitate the transition to greater sustainability.
Climate impacts increase the risk of a transition to net zero
After weeks of lively discussions at COP27 in Egypt, the urgency to move the world onto a more sustainable path has never been greater. Scientists have warned that the world needs to cut global emissions by 5 percent to 7 percent annually to limit the damage caused by climate change. However, right now, emissions are rising 1% to 2% per year. Discovering new avenues for a net zero economy is critical if we are to limit the economic and social damage of a rapidly changing climate. This means that we all have a role to play in ensuring the optimal balance between greenhouse gas production and the amount of greenhouse gases removed from the atmosphere.
Microsoft and PWC’s blueprint for transitioning to Net Zero highlights the importance of innovation and harnessing new technologies that enable organizations to achieve their Net Zero ambitions at rapid pace. One of the key innovations aimed at accelerating the enterprise journey to Net Zero is digital dual technology powered by AI infrastructure capabilities. A digital twin can be thought of as a working representation of assets, products, and production plants. Powered by Microsoft Azure AI-optimized infrastructure that leverages NVIDIA-accelerated computing and networking technologies, digital twins allow organizations to visualize, simulate, and predict operations, whether it’s in a factory, wind farm, mining operation, or any other type of operation.
Digital dual adoption offers early adopters the possibility of truly accelerated and differentiated business value realization. Innovative companies can leverage this powerful toolkit to accelerate their innovation journeys and drive strategic business outcomes supported by technological innovation at scale. A recent study by Microsoft and Intel found that globally, only 28 percent of manufacturers have begun rolling out a dual-digital solution, and of those, only one in seven have fully deployed it in their factories. One of the main findings of this study highlighted that when digital twins are used effectively, they can achieve huge gains in efficiency, optimization, and cost savings while unlocking critically important insights that can drive innovation and improve decision-making for those who adopt the technology.
Maximize wind energy production with digital twins
Digital twins have emerged as a powerful tool for renewable energy producers seeking gains in their production processes as well. Take Doosan Heavy Industry and Construction in South Korea as an example. As a leader in engineering, procurement, heavy manufacturing, power generation, and water desalination services, Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction has been appointed by the South Korean government to help it achieve the goals of the Green New Deal plan, which includes the goal of generating 20 percent of the country’s electricity needs through renewable energy sources. by 2030.
In pursuit of improving the efficiency of wind turbines, construction and construction company Doosan Heavy Industries has partnered with Microsoft and Bentley Systems to develop a digital twin of its wind farms that helps it increase power output and reduce maintenance costs. The company currently has 16 South Korean wind farms in operation, which generate enough electricity to power up to 35,000 homes annually. Innovative digital controls and processes allow Doosan to remotely monitor wind farm operations, predict maintenance before failures occur, and reduce the need for maintenance teams to physically inspect wind turbines.
Leveraging Azure Digital Twins and an Azure IoT Hub powered by NVIDIA’s Azure AI Infrastructure capabilities, Doosan can simulate, visualize, and optimize every aspect of infrastructure planning, deployment, and continuous monitoring. This has resulted in increased energy efficiency, enhanced employee safety, and improved asset resilience. And with Bentley seeing its digital-dual technology powered by Azure reduce O&M costs by 15 percent at other facilities, Doosan is well-positioned to continue leveraging its digital-dual solution and unlock new efficiency gains by harnessing the power of cloud-based AI. . Infrastructure capabilities.
Take advantage of digital twins to power the Net Zero transition
In the oil and gas sector, digital dual technology helps one of the world’s leading carbon footprint industries identify opportunities for improvement and carbon reduction. A noteworthy offer can be found with Tata Consulting Services who have provided the Clever Energy solution to the global consumer goods giant. Using digital twins, real-time data, and cognitive intelligence to improve energy savings in this consumer goods customer’s production plants, the solution has helped reduce energy use by up to 15 percent as well as an equivalent reduction in CO2 emissions. Given that buildings consume nearly 40 percent of the world’s energy and emit a third of greenhouse gases, this solution also helps the customer relieve some of the pressure of significant energy cost increases in Europe.
In another example, a large multinational supplier aiming to achieve net zero carbon status by 2050 is today harnessing the power of digital twins to support its own sustainability goals.
From the vast global network of complex assets managed by this company, a digital twin of one of its facilities has been developed to calculate real-time carbon intensity and energy efficiency. Microsoft Azure provided the perfect platform: IoT Hub receives more than 250 billion data signals per month from the company’s global operating assets, with AI providing key insights into how businesses can become more secure and efficient and Azure AI Infrastructure and high-performance computing enabling seamless processing of volumes huge amount of data.
With long-term plans in place to scale the digital dual solution to all of the company’s global facilities, Microsoft Azure’s security, scalability, and powerful high-performance computing capabilities will be key supporting factors in how successful it is in transitioning to more carbon-conscious operations.
Powering the next era of industrial digitization
At NVIDIA GTC, a global artificial intelligence conference, NVIDIA and Microsoft announced a collaboration to connect the NVIDIA Omniverse platform for developing and running industrial metaverse applications with Azure Cloud Services. Businesses of every scale will soon be able to use the Omniverse Cloud Platform as a Service on Microsoft Azure to accelerate the development and deployment of accurate, connected, secure, AI-powered digital dual simulations.
Key points about the net zero economy and digital twins
The transition to a net zero economy is one of the defining challenges of our time. As the devastating impact of climate change continues to disrupt global economies, companies will need new ways to reduce carbon emissions and help move the world onto a more sustainable path.
Given the enormous complexity of modern business—especially resource-intensive industries such as oil and gas and manufacturing—finding ways to improve processes, reduce waste, and accelerate time to value can be extremely stressful unless new technology solutions are found to help deliver strategic capabilities.
Digital Twin technology provides organizations with a powerful option to run detailed simulations to generate massive amounts of data. By integrating this data into HPC power and scalability and harnessing the visualization power of Nvidia GPU-accelerated virtual computing capabilities, organizations can discover new opportunities for increased efficiency, optimization, and carbon neutrality gains.
Read more about how companies are using IoT spatial intelligence to create detailed digital twins of physical assets by downloading the latest IoT Signals report.
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