AES unveils AI-enabled solar installation robot Maximo

US power generation group AES Corp (NYSE:AES) today said it is launching Maximo, described as the first AI-enabled solar installation robot which can install solar panels in half the time and for half the cost.

Maximo is designed to work together with on-the-ground teams to accelerate renewable energy deployment.

"Maximo is the first proven solar installation robot on the market," according to AES president and CEO Andres Gluski. "We are facing unprecedented increases in demand, driven in large part by the rise of AI and data centres, and innovations like these will be fundamental for accelerating our ability to bring projects online faster and with greater efficiency," Gluski said.

Maximo, which automates the heavy lifting for placing and attaching solar modules, has already installed nearly 10 MW of solar and is expected to install 100 MW by 2025. AES plans to use the robot to assist in building up to 5 GW of its solar backlog and pipeline over the next three years.

AES will deploy Maximo for its construction of the 2-GW Bellefield solar-plus-storage project in Kern County, California, which is under contract with Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN). The Oak Ridge Solar project in Louisiana, also powering Amazon operations, was Maximo's first utility-scale deployment.

In 2021, AES unveiled a solar installation robot called Atlas.

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