French multinational utility company Engie is partnering with Google Cloud to use artificial intelligence to optimize its wind portfolio.

Back in 2019, Google's DeepMind division revealed that it was using AI to predict wind power output thirty-six hours in advance, allowing energy providers to schedule grid inputs more accurately.

Google tested the experimental software on its own infrastructure, which in 2019 used 700MW of wind power capacity across its data centers and offices.

Engie will be the first customer of the Google Cloud AI version of the AI, and will trial the service with its German wind portfolio - which coincidentally also powers Google facilities. Should it prove a success, it will be expanded across Europe.

Larry Cochrane, director of global energy solutions for Google Cloud, told Bloomberg: “The best way to think about it is as a trading recommendations tool."

Cochrane added that Google is working on similar forecasting services for other renewable markets like solar power and storage.

"At Google Cloud, we believe that more accurate data and predictions of wind power production will be valuable to electricity grids, creating benefits for consumers and making wind more competitive with fossil fuels," he said.

For the majority of its cloud computing needs, Engie appears to primarily use Amazon Web Services.