Just how much of the process of creating, distributing and integrating solar power can be automated?

That is the question that Siemens seeks to answer in this video, which talks up its lengthy experience in innovation through partnerships and its history in integrating supply, manufacturing and distribution chains.

With the pace of change barely slowing in the energy business, companies like Siemens are making their best efforts to balance the needs of constant technological advances with growing demand and related operational challenges.

For solar industry newbies, the video also clearly lays out many of the processes and components in a solar panel, and explains how efficiencies can be wrung out of the system.

As industries grow, they often move from a period of innovation and comparative chaos among multiple small suppliers to increased standardization and pursuit of scale to control costs and quality. With solar power installations growing constantly larger and being used in a wider variety of locations, giant manufacturing firms are competing to be the industry leader in this increasingly central component of the energy business. The era of consolidation, and automation, has begun.

For more on integration within renewable generation industry sectors, see: European Wind Sector Set For Growth.