From manual construction to autonomous jobsites, what will the future of solar look like?
Picture this: a growing community needs 1 GW of new generation capacity. Today, selecting a site, securing permits, building, and connecting that capacity to the grid can take years, and that timeline can’t keep pace with demand. Now imagine a future in which a project of that size could be delivered in about a year, roughly the time it took to build the Empire State Building. This is a hypothetical ambition, not a timetable demonstrated by a project or study.
Artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, automation, and edge computing are already reshaping how utility-scale solar gets built. This article explores their potential to improve the phases of project development and construction, specifically, but does not assess the potential for grid connection improvements.
The shift won’t come from a single machine. It will come from connecting data, design, and equipment so each stage of a project feeds the next. Before getting to what that looks like, it’s worth starting with the challenges pushing the industry toward these tools.