Close Menu
    A Chinese firm has used robots to install a 350MW solar farm in Australia and says each robot does the work of '3 or 4' humans, but much quicker & it's looking to 100% automate solar farm setup.
    Futurology

    A Chinese firm has used robots to install a 350MW solar farm in Australia and says each robot does the work of ‘3 or 4’ humans, but much quicker & it’s looking to 100% automate solar farm setup.

    Share.
    View 12 Comments

    12 Comments

    1. lughnasadh on

      Submission Statement

      Some people have wondered if solar adoption will happen on the familiar s-curve technology is adopted at. Solar is 7% of global electricity production today, if it’s about to take off on s-curve adoption, it will be 90%+ in the early 2030s.

      Here’s intriguing evidence this might be the case. As robots take over the manufacture of solar panels, and now their installation too – not only does solar adoption get cheaper, it gets easier and faster.

      There are still a dwindling few holding out for the hopes of a nuclear renaissance, but that hope is demolished by the economics of robots & solar.

    2. Specialist_Power_266 on

      If china makes the same mistake that western firms have made, and see robotics and AI as a way to remove what they see as an unjust obligation(paying for labor, so profits are 100 percent), rather than a way to better the lives of all its citizens, then they will be in the same boat as everyone else, and should be expecting increased amounts of violent outbursts from its citizens.

    3. FreeEnergy001 on

      I first read it as 4′ human and thought they need small robots to go into places where it was hard for humans to get to.
      Problem with 100% automated is that one hiccup can lead to a major mess if it’s not caught right away. I can see the workforce being greatly reduced with humans there just to keep an eye on things and handle the edge cases.

    4. Sowhatnut8 on

      Automation can’t be 100% otherwise ordinary ppl will have no money to buy all the automated goods. Corps have to keep a balance or create their own downfall.

    5. Mayafoe on

      Just wow. The deployment speed is insane.

      If each panel is 100 watts… and there are 1000 of these droids, they can deploy (see edit below) GW of panels in 24 hours. This is insane.

      Edit… bad at basic math… updated number for 1000 droids using standard 100watt panels in 24 hours is:

      144 MW

      With standard 400 watt panels it is, of course, 576 MW

      And with 1100 watt panels this is… 1.584 GW installed in 24 hours

      …. which is still insane

    6. Ulyks on

      A few years ago there were a lot of reports about automation bringing back manufacturing to the US and EU from China.

      I guess the Chinese government read those reports and swiftly created incentives for Chines factories to use more Chinese robots.

      The thing about robots is they, just like all other machines have a cost and factories want the cheapest one that can do the job.

      Chinese factories have access to cheaper robots than factories in any other country so not only do they have lower running costs, they are more likely to replace human labor with robots because of the low level of entry.

      This is also true for the factory making the robots.

      The result is they are currently struggling with deflation. It’s looking like a self enforcing feedback loop.

      It will slow down when every step of the process is fully automated, from mining to putting it in the hands of the customer but it’s looking like China will get there first.

    7. Nubatack on

      If it does work of 3-4 humans, but quicker, then it does work of more than 3-4 humans

    8. splatch on

      Blatantly false title

      > Leapting confirmed that it has already shipped the module-mounting robot to Australia with the machine scheduled to arrive in the coming days when it will be dispatched to the project site for approximately one week of commissioning work.

      “We anticipate that the installation and operation will commence officially by mid-February,” the company said.

    9. brihamedit on

      They are building up capacity. And US is diving backwards into coal and oil. Which is a big step back and probably won’t recover. Trump is literally a russian agent.

    11. HiroPetrelli on

      A comment that would actually make sense would be either “the work of ‘3 or 4’ humans” or “much quicker [than humans]”, but not both.

    12. hornswoggled111 on

      Cool. I know they haven’t actually done this installation yet.

      Hopefully it works well and can just roll on and make that big 17 GW projects happen. They have announced a 200 GW one in China last I heard. Should be useful there as well.