The global renewables industry is a dynamic and rapidly growing sector, crucial for the transition to a more sustainable, low-carbon energy system. Renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, and biomass, are increasingly being utilized to meet the world's energy needs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change.

More is Needed, and Fast

In 2023, $1.8 trillion USD was spent globally on generation and infrastructure projects to support the transition to renewable energy (see BloombergNEF).

Yet, according to global sources such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) and locally, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), renewables development needs to accelerate to meet emissions targets from 2030 through to 2050, at which point most national governments have set goals for a “net zero” carbon emissions environment.

For these reasons, Asite is focused on supporting the Renewables industry to help deliver more assets, as fast and efficiently as possible, to the highest quality.

Challenges of delivering Renewable Energy Infrastructure: cost, resourcing, complex planning

At first glance, delivering renewable energy infrastructure is simply a construction process.

However, when viewed in detail, Renewables projects face significant challenges:

• High Cost Projects mean issues or delays can be expensive

Renewables projects require significant – sometimes massive – investment.

As of January 2024, Australia’s Clean Energy Council lists 81 active renewables projects with a combined capital value of $21.9 Bn AUD, or an average project value of $270m.

Any issues or delays that occur during planning, construction and commissioning can be expensive to solve. What’s more, time impacts add to the project cost as well as delaying the revenue and environmental benefits of the final project.

• Remote Locations and Vast Project Sites

Rural or remote locations mean that construction and delivery teams are often far away from head office, design, engineering/consulting and project control teams, with that distance also spanning many time-zones. Internet access can be haphazard, sometimes non-existent, in many remote areas around the world – even in countries with advanced economies and infrastructure.

Adding to this challenge, renewables construction sites can be vast - they can easily cover many hundreds of hectares and span multiple kilometres, end-to-end.

In these circumstance, essential communications such as accessing approved construction plans and instructions, seeking additional advice or relaying issues fast and accurately, are all fundamentally more difficult, risking project delays and cost overruns.

• Renewables projects require specialists, often from anywhere in the World

While modern construction projects require successful collaboration, renewables projects are characterized by a larger number of specialist teams, regularly involved throughout all stages of project delivery.

These include specialist engineering, project, design, consulting, environmental, geo-structural consultants, government and utilities negotiators and more – on the whole, more than a typical construction project.

Further, in large-scale wind, hydro, solar and battery projects, equipment vendors are almost always located overseas from the project site. Project success depends upon the vendor’s ‘hands on’ participation throughout the planning, delivery, assembly and integration of their highly specialized and expensive equipment.

Assured and reliable communications, access to approved documentation, and liaising to provide answers or review issues quickly – effective management and oversight – is more difficult and risky, as the number of participants and specialists increases.

• Increased Community Scrutiny

Renewables project owners and delivery teams need to deal with higher levels of public scrutiny than is often the case in standard construction.

Strict environmental conditions are placed on projects, requiring regular and proactive reporting to authorities and community. Third parties may regularly monitor project progress, looking for issues, errors, or perceived transgressions from building, environmental or regulatory approvals or standards.

Local communities and constituents may raise issues and concerns that, if not recorded and handled appropriately, result in unforeseen issues that management need to solve, taking resources away from delivering the end result.

While none of these issues are unique, it’s the combination seen on many Renewables projects that demand a particular strategy. In addition, common construction project issues such as ineffective project governance or oversight, and inefficient communications, systems or processes, still need to be anticipated and managed.

Renewables investors, developers and construction partners require a comprehensive approach, supported by an effective digital information system, enabling them to confidently deliver renewables projects with less risk of cost and time impacts.

Asite, and its imperative role in the Global Renewables Initiative

Addressing the challenges that face large renewables projects is key to project success. Here are just a few ways that Asite can drive better quality, productivity and collaboration:

1. World Class Digital Construction Delivery and Collaboration

Asite is, at its core, a world-class, digital construction platform. Our platform enhances the overall quality of Renewable Energy development projects by creating a single source of truth and a systematic approach to construction project management.

Asite enables renewables projects to consolidate all relevant project data including the CDE, scheduling, financial and more into one space. This means any renewables project can be managed in its entirety from a single dashboard.

Renewables projects that implement Asite know that the core management, construction and quality processes required to deliver large-scale, complex outcomes are all in place.

This improves project quality, performance and delivery, and reduces risks of cost and time overruns.

2. Deliver the right information to the right person at the right time

Ensuring each person or team sees what they need, when they need it, wherever they are located is critical to delivering a successful renewables project.

Being a cloud platform, Asite enables secured access to any user with access to the internet, anywhere in the world. Project teams have complete control over what information anyone can see, and what they can do with it. All user access is fully audited.

Customisable workflows automate key processes – for example document review and approval – both internally or, say external contractors, vendor engineers and specialists. Any queries, requests for information, site issues etc. are automatically routed to the right person or team, fast.

And project managers, both onsite and at head office, can monitor all this through customizable dashboards to make sure things are running smoothly, delays are avoided and potential impacts minimized.

3. Site Access? No Internet? No Problem

Asite’s Field capabilities, supporting any modern mobile device, mean that any construction team member can always access the documents or instructions they need to deliver the required result.

These capabilities include access to Asite’s Smart Forms and workflows, so users can complete and submit any kind of form, including photos videos or other attachments, follow their progress and receive results, no matter where they are – on the project or overseas.

No access to the internet? Approved users can download documents for access on their mobile device, meaning no delays in working on site. Asite automatically synchs everything when the user gets back in range.

4. Report what is important to your Renewables Project

Asite’s full reporting engine enables Renewables projects to meet the needs of any stakeholder, with fully customized reports and dashboards.

Data can be captured using Asite’s Smart Forms, automated feeds from IOT devices on the project site, or from other application platforms using Asite’s integration capabilities. Stakeholders can be alerted to updates via email with links directly to the information.

Asite users have created tailored reports including:

🌲Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) data capture & reporting

👫Community Engagement and Feedback

📊Project performance beyond the norm - e.g. consumption of fuel & water

Asite’s reporting engine can be configured by any user with average spreadsheet skills and a few hours’ training. No expensive data specialists are required.

Of course, Asite ships with hundreds of standard construction reports that can be used immediately or tailored to the needs of any Renewables project.

5. Digitize any customized process, form and workflow

Asite’s Smart Forms combined with the Asite Workflow Engine can digitize any process, ranging from simple reviews to complex, time-critical submissions that require inputs from multiple stakeholders.

Asite Drives Value on $500m Renewable Energy Project

How do all these solutions come together to impact Renewables projects? Take a look at the following use-case...

Asite solves Community Engagement Challenge for Wind Generation Project

Large renewable projects can be contentious, and community feedback – if not handled fast and professionally – can easily fester into unwanted attention, impacting public perception as well as diverting management away from quality project delivery.

A wind generation project (over $500m and over 60 wind turbines), was looking for a way to capture community feedback, and ensure it was channeled to the appropriate team for response.

Often this feedback is given in person, on site, to any of the hundreds of constructors or contractors, at any time. It’s just not appropriate – actually, it often makes things worse - to ask the public to “go to the website” or “call the head office”.

So they need a solution that enables any member to capture the information accurately and at the point of meeting the constituent.

Asite’s Smart Forms drives a great solution:

💻Every construction team member, including subcontractors, can access a tailored community feedback form from their laptop, mobile phone, tablet – any device they use.

📄This enables them to capture, in real time, the feedback including contact details (if the person wants follow-up in any manner). The form is designed to assist capturing and categorizing the type and urgency of the issue.

🌐If the team member is off-line or out of internet range, they can still easily use the form, capture the information, and Asite will automatically synchronize when they have access to the internet.

Asite’s tailored workflow then channels that form to the right team, according to the category of feedback or concern. At all times, the team member who collected the information can also see where the feedback process is at. A copy of the form can be automatically transmitted to the constituent.

Further, Asite’s advanced integration can transfer that information to other applications such as a CRM system, enabling the corporate marketing or communications departments to deal with the feedback.

And finally, all interactions are reported on a tailored dashboard for central project management to understand what is happening on the project site, and ensure that issues are dealt with in a timely manner.

Leverage Asite to Drive your Renewable Energy Projects Forward

Asite plays a pivotal role in the successful delivery of renewable energy projects. Asite enables project managers to navigate the complexities of renewable energy projects and deliver successful outcomes on time and within budget. Given Asite’s continuous investment in research and development, innovation is at the heart of what we do, ensuring that we are always well-equipped to support the renewables industry today, tomorrow, and in the many generations to come.

Get in touch to learn more! 👉 If you are working in the Renewable Energy industry, and want to learn more about the broader Asite platform, do not hesitate to reach out to the local team and book a demo!