From Wind Turbines to Algorithms: The Next Industrial Revolution in Energy

Artificial intelligence is beginning to reshape the global energy industry.

From predictive maintenance in wind farms to optimisation of complex energy systems, AI is becoming a critical layer of intelligence behind modern infrastructure.

In this episode of AFF Winds of Change, host Afonso Faria speaks with Uchenna Ngubane, Founder and CEO of Somahorse Nexus, a company building an AI talent operating system designed to identify, train, and deploy developers capable of building real enterprise AI solutions.

We explore how AI is transforming industrial sectors, why the biggest challenge may not be technology but talent, and what this means for industries like wind energy and renewable infrastructure.

If you want to understand how artificial intelligence could reshape the future of the energy transition, this episode is for you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:07

Welcome to AFF Winds of Change The show that takes you behind the blades As host Alfonso Faria explores the evolving wind energy landscape With decades of experience in management supervision and quality assurance he leads insightful discussions on the changes shaping our industry We invite you to listen learn and join the conversation hey guys welcome back to the A10 Winstur's podcast if you are not following then you should and participate and also feel free to drop a message and let me know if there is a topic that you would like to discuss. Also for the ones that follow us, for the ones that know us, if you feel like you'd like to participate, if you feel like you'd like to have this conversation one-to-one with me, what everyone else listens to your perspective and your view as well on whatever topic that you want to discuss. Feel free to reach out to me, feel free to send me a message, direct message, an email, either on LinkedIn or on my own phone. If you have my number, feel free to do so. It's engaged that we interact with each other and that we talked with each other within the industry. Now, today we're going to talk about something that is a little bit different, still within the industry, still within developing the industry. And actually, if I look into what we are going to present, what we're going to talk about, it's maybe the future, or maybe the future is here already. We're going to go a little bit into algorithms. So from wind turbines into algorithms, we're going to go into the next industrial revolution within the energy, of course, and it's the artificial intelligence. It's here, people that don't believe in AI or people that refuse to use AI. I believe that you are definitely leaving something out. We need to embrace technology, we need to embrace the further developments, and it's developing so fast that there is no way to go around it. Within the turbines, there is so much data, so much information that is being processed, and within the whole industry itself, and not only other industry, but all the industries itself. There is so much that goes around it that we cannot go around this. So today, we're going to do it a little bit different. Professionals out there that are very young and still have that experience and still have that dedication, that motivation, and that knowledge to bring something new to the table. So we need to focus on that as well. We need to innovate and we need to be able to bring sex blood into the industry, into this sector. And in general, I think we need to keep moving forward. That means that we need to give opportunities and we need to listen and we need to see what the young generation is doing. And when I say the young generation, I'm talking about the generation that has actually grown up with all of this intelligence, all of this artificial intelligence, all of the computers. Some of us, when we grew up, we had none of this. But there are bright minds out there that have grown up with all of it surrounded by it, and they are developing beautiful things. So today, my guest is Mr. Uchen Nubane. He is the founder of Summerhouse Nexus. Summerhouse Nexus is a young company. They've developed something that is called AI talent operating system. We're going to dive into this. We're going to learn a little bit more about what it is that they are actually bringing to the table. I think that's very important. What is your vision? Whatever we bring to the table, whatever we design, whatever we want to do. If there is no vision behind it, then there is no purpose behind it. So let's talk with uh Uchenna. Ucena is 19 years old. I've talked with Uchenna before, and he is uh he's very clever. He has a lot to say, he has a lot to bring to the table. So let's dive into it. Ucana, welcome. Welcome to this podcast. Hello. Hi, Uchenna. Hi, welcome.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Thank you. Welcome. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. Yeah, I just love to share a bit of hard work we are.

SPEAKER_04 4:38

Thank you for taking the invite. Ucena, you are 19 years old. You are the founder of a company horse Nexus. Tell us a little bit about AI and about what Horse is developing.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

So, yeah, I recently founded Summerhorse Nexus. Basically, Summer Horse is a company which helps connect AI developers across Africa who are happy to actually be out there and start creating AI solutions with enterprises that are actually looking to implement AI solutions in their ecosystems. So, of course, as we know, majority of speculations out there that there weren't actually enough AI. But the reality is there is a large number of developers out there, especially across the continent of Africa, who are space building and are looking for opportunities where they can put their work out there in for companies that are bringing change for Africa. So it's never been an issue of a shortage of developers, but really a way to actually provide them an opportunity so that they can prove themselves. Because, you know, not everyone has the same opportunity to actually be from a situation where they can go to a certain university, which is considered to be favorites for a certain course or for a certain degree, or maybe have a referral or someone that can actually put them in a position where they have an opportunity. But a lot of people have the opportunity to actually, so once they actually get our people that can learn and have that type of skill, I think it's only fair for us to provide solutions or opportunities to them to actually put them out there. So that's what we are doing with Summer Horse. We're actually connecting developers with companies that are implementing AI solutions. So instead of it being a thing of required to maybe have a C V or maybe three experience developers now who actually say that they can code, they just simply have to go through a certification that we have, depending on the type of language that they could add or the type of interested in. And once you reach the certain performance thresholds that we do have in place, you are then certified and you start receiving AI paid projects from companies because you know if I was self-taught and the person that went to a university, honestly, I believe we should have the same opportunity, you know, because we clearly have the same skill. So that's what we are creating an opportunity for developers. And then on the enterprise side, I think it's easier now for clients to actually get AI solutions without having to go through freelance platforms, not being sure if you know there's guaranteed that they will get an AI solution. Because I can certainly just go into PT and put together a CP and say that it's analyst.

SPEAKER_04 7:17

I was uh let's dive a little bit into it because there's a lot of passion I can hear in your speech and what you're saying. Like I said earlier on, if we don't have a vision, then we don't have a purpose. And to have a vision, you need to have a passion as well. Otherwise, then what's the point, right? But let's go a little bit back. When you say developers, nowadays with uh ChatGPT and with all of the platforms that is out there for AI performance and AI development. So when you say developers, does that mean that you take the opportunity for someone that is developing a certain software that helps the industry, that helps to process data, or that supports companies to process data, and that you are then taking those persons that are doing that and you are connecting them then to the companies, the enterprises that is out there, or how does that work?

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Okay, so if I'm someone that has self-taught myself how to code and I have a good degree of understanding on how certain languages work, I'm able to buy solutions, and I'm quite confident at that. So, what we do with that particular person, they sign up onto our platform. So if there's someone that is well experienced in maybe Python or maybe TensorFlow, whatever language you are skilled in, we go through a certain certification that we have on the platform. And once you pass that, you then start getting iPods from enterprises that are looking to implement solutions. So if a fine tech in Africa, for example, if a bank needs perhaps maybe a fraud detection system, they no longer have to go through the whole process of hiring. They can now simply get the tool as guaranteed. They go on the platform, they put that AI solution that they need, like a fault detection, and then the system automatically matches AI developers that have proven themselves on that particular tool and those particular AI languages that need for that tool. So now it's no more a thing of they had to use a CV. No, the developers they can code. So they actually have proved it on the platform with the certain certification directly that we have on it. So when developers are matched, we are able now to guarantee that it's developers that do have that skill set.

SPEAKER_04 9:22

Because artificial intelligence and the whole development of softwares and so on, I speak from my own experience when just recently I had an author or someone approach me for developing a software that would help me a lot. But then just because there is sensitive data that I refuse to work with them. There was just something that didn't match. So how do you control that? How do you control sensitive data? How do you control the data flow? Or how do you control if someone is developing some kind of software, especially if we go into big enterprises, even small enterprises, we need to make sure that there's no data breach and everything is secured and settled. Nowadays, when I look into the artificial intelligence, to the developers, to the softwares, to all the data that is around us, there is a lot of people out there that is developing something. They are developing softwares, they are developing programs, they are developing a lot of things. So, how do you actually filter that? How do you filter what is actually beneficial, what is actually good for what is average, or what is something that's maybe is good, but it's not good for commercial perspectives. I mean, we are businesses, we need to run a business, you have your own business, you need to stand behind your business so that you cannot take the risk that you hire someone, that you contract someone that is then going to put you at risk with developing something that is not correct, or that is then going to have a breach in data or something. So, how do you control that? How do you monitor that?

SPEAKER_00 10:46

So, before any tool is deployed to a specific fine sec, there has to be a certain testing that is done. So before it is actually deployed to the enterprise, it has to reach a certain threshold that we do have in place. And if that is not done, what normally happens is it has to be either assessed or it has to be rebuilt to ensure that it does reach those certifications. So it's never a situation where we deploy an AI solution, it is tested before deployed to the clients. So it isn't a situation where we are not sure. We first ensure that internally it is tested by the team itself that's working under Act and it reaches the thresholds that we have put in place for it to be considered as ready for commercial deployments or it's ready for people to start making use of it. So I think that is an important thing that actually we have to ensure at all times because at the end of the day, we are deploying these tools for actual business that is running, especially when you consider like fine sets. You need to understand that probably over millions of people are using this platform. So if whatever we provide, there's a there's a small issue. We must be fixing a company, we are affecting a million people. So really it is something that we consider deeply and have to actually ensure that we do ensure that there is no situation where maybe there's a situation where maybe the clients find themselves having to trace back on what exactly is going on and just to find the issues with the tool. So we ensure that we do our thing and it has to reach certain thresholds before we can officially provide the clients. So yeah, that's something important.

SPEAKER_04 12:19

That is actually one of the most difficult things within companies. There are other things out there that are quite difficult. Running companies is not a walk to the bank, it's actually quite comprehensive. But I can imagine that, especially when we talk about softwares, about programming, about solutions that go into the industry, that go into other companies. If I make a very small comparison towards technical skills that sometimes people claim that they have, and then we contract them and then turn out that they don't have, even though the CVs they look fine and everything looks good. But then when you actually go into it, you actually see that the CV is actually backed up by I'm sure you go through that as well, because I'm sure there is a lot of people out there that with ChatGPT nowadays we can actually have the university degree with Chat GPT. So and that that is hard. How do you constantly that's something that you must battle with sort of constantly?

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Yeah, I think if you really understand the platform we are creating, that's the whole point why we've been creating this platform because that's the issue that's really faced. Like I said, if I'm applying now to a job opportunity, I could get accepted with just creating a Chat GPT, a C B. And on the other side, we have the CTO who's actually trying to hire a data analyst because they're facing certain issues. So you here with the a CEV that is made by ChatGPT, so it really is something that has to be filtered and needs to find a way. So I think really what we do with this is why we're detrimental, a thing of it's not even what C is or maybe what university you studied. It's clearly a matter of proof. That's why the certification is actually you going through the certain data sets related to maybe the type of tool that you had selected or the type of sector, and the testing does show in a sense that actually by the time you finish the data set that we had, or that's the testing that we actually met exactly the type of tool that you're gonna be working on. So you basically we're testing if you actually can work on the AI, the fraud detections tool that you're gonna be recognized for companies. And if you can, that's what you need. I think realistically, yes, companies, even yes, company when you go to a company and you're trying to get hired, become a CVs, but that's just how they're trying to see proof on paper that we actually can do the job. But realistically, they actually want to see an actual proof in a sense where you're doing it. So we are actually doing that. We're not securing proof with C V C V to say, no, here's a piece of paper. She said that she has done that. No, she has done that type of tool on the platform, she has created a specific tool, this fraud detection, before. So we are certain that she can be part of this specific team to create a fraud detection tool. Every AI developer that we add onto our platform has been certified with our thresholds that we have for specific type of tools and the specific type of sector. So it's nothing to do with CBs. That's the whole thing we are trying to eliminate because at the same time, that's what's holding the developers back from being able to get opportunities because they didn't study from where I was from here, or they don't have this number of experience. But in three months, I can be a full-stack coder or I can be a full-stack developer. In three months of being in my room and just fully studying online courses, you know, there's a lot of online courses now that don't require one to actually be in a physical university. Everything is accessible online. So, yeah, that's what we are creating.

SPEAKER_04 15:44

Client that comes to you, that comes to some of us next year, they will then get the full package of the service supply, they will get the software, the solution they are looking for, they will get it, and you have done all the work and you have developed the team, you have developed the person so that their platform is ready to go and the customer gets what they actually want. That's amazing. That's something that I mean that's developing people. That is taking people, giving them the chance, developing them further, making sure that they have what they need, of course, that they actually focus and they actually want to do that, and they are dedicated to those and develop them further. That's amazing. And you are 19 years old and you are developing this. What made you step into this? Let me ask you a very personal question. What is the drive behind you? What made you have such passion to want to get out there and want to give people a chance that otherwise they would not have a chance?

SPEAKER_00 16:39

To be honest, the reason why I really started that is because I didn't have a trust my soul. I didn't actually get an opportunity to get to university. So if I'm in a position where I don't have another opportunity to study, we'd have difficulties in creating job opportunities or even a future in a sense. So why not create a platform where that gives people an opportunity in a sense where they don't have to have a university experience or they don't have to maybe be entitled to that, you know what I mean? A lot of things that are learned in uni, you only see it all the time, maybe on platforms like LinkedIn, where people are constantly sharing forces that actually are available for people to without going to a university. And it's the exact same thing we'd be learning from this. I think me seeing that, not having that opportunity, actually. I thought why not create something for myself that can actually impact Africa? Because I've always had that within I've always wanted to create something that can be very much impactful. Whatever I do or whatever position I get, it will be impactful and for a very large number. And once I had that vision to actually work at Summer Horse, uh, I knew it was uptown from there. So honestly, it was my past experience, and also just like I said, creating an opportunity for us to be able to get connected to better communities and wherever you are. If I'm from a very rural area, I should that's an opportunity. Someone who's in a very good university as that thing for enterprise. Tell me what does summer horse stand for? Why the name Summer Horse? Listen, okay. Summer horse actually comes from my clername, right? So my son is South African, so the clan name is actually right, which is a clear name in a Zulu language. So Summer Harsh is a Zulu, right? So the word Hashi is actually horse, right? So I just changed that to the English and then I said summer horse. Okay. I just find it to be personally to me and like my background, you know what I mean? So yeah, I think it's very sentimental to me, but that's actually where it comes from. It's actually my clan name. I just saw the English.

SPEAKER_04 18:54

I have to say, I'm really amazed. You are so young, and I don't mean it in a bad way, but you are so young, then you do something that people actually forget to do sometimes. And that is, if you don't have the opportunity and if you don't have the path in front of you, then you just make your own opportunities. And then you make your own path and you go for it. And you have that vision in your mind and you go for it. And more importantly, you make sure that other people will along with you. And that's something that is very we should be graceful for young people like you, young adults like you, that have that opportunity, that have that mindset, that have that vision, and go for it and give the others an opportunity. Because that's how maybe we will not achieve it, but at least we try to develop something, we try to do something better. Otherwise, nothing will change. In this world nowadays, we have all the wars going on, we have all the differences in social classes and all of that. People need to stem up and they need to find their own way. So that's I have to give it to you. Congratulations. That is amazing. And you go back to your own roots where you get your name and you actually put it into English, and that's an amazing name. Just to close off here the conversation, because we still have a little bit of time. How are you? Because we are renewable industry. So, are you developing something for the renewable industry, or is this something that is in your mind, or is this something that will be developed? The wind farms, solar parks, they have tremendous amount of data that comes from them and needs to be analyzed, needs to be reviewed. Customers are constantly looking for a different way to do that, a faster way to analyze the wind turbines, analyze the solar pinks, analyze errors, data, production. Is that something that you are already developing or that you have plans to develop?

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Oh, yes, most definitely. Especially since I've been very close with my advisor, Mr. Tony, who's actually the CEO of a renewables and Africa company. He's actually also opened my eye a lot in the renewables energy sector. Especially when you look across Africa, and I actually speak about South Africa, where I'm from, really, it's something that should be looked into a lot, especially since how we've been having a huge crisis for like the last, let's say, five, six, seven years. We've been having a lot of load setting issues. And I think a lot of that has been the fact that our main resource for energy was coal. So if we have to really look at uh solar energy as a whole sector and trying to create something quite impactful with it, it can actually go a very long way because that's what I'm actually looking at too, especially where I'm from. If it can be something that we look into and create a way where we can actually make it easier for us to access something like electricity, which has been an issue for millions of homes for a very long time for South Africa, and there's ways for us to actually say there's a wind of renewable energy that we can actually use to be able to generate electricity, which is something to Africa soldier very much, very much with Mr. Tony and something that we want to actually. very much solidifies the sector especially since we communicate i develop it into different sectors so i think stoler renewab energy is something very much on the list even as a next sector to act because like the gap is there and the opportunity when there's a gap that creates an opportunity so there's a huge opportunity to actually create impact on not just South Africa. I just mentioned South Africa because that's where I grew up and I saw really huge gap for renewable energy especially you know and that's the space in a country that is considered to be in the very top end across Africa. Imagine across Africa.

SPEAKER_04 22:36

So that really does create an opportunity and yeah there's something we can definitely look against I share the same opinion and we've been studying and we've been following also other countries and other regions in Africa and there is definitely there is a lot of uh clever entrepreneurs out there there is a lot of knowledge out there there's a lot of skills out there technical skills but there's the need for a structured investment in growing and making it further one last question for you and then we're going to wrap it up because we're almost out of time but one last question for you where will Somahorse Nexus be in 10 years' time in 10 years time I actually Somah's Nexus has a very solidified infrastructure across Africa specifically for talent.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

I think it will get to our point where companies are easily accessing solution primarily because of Somahost Nexus which is connecting AI developers to Africa which may have not had a huge opportunity but now have that access to be able to get connected into the skill that they obtain or have so I see it as a very dominant and main structure for how talents actually get opportunity across Africa. Currently you are operating in five countries which is South Africa Morocco Nigeria Egypt and Kenya but the main goal in 10 years to be very much dominant across Africa to the point where it's almost mandatory for you to be somehow next certified you know not in not in a very statistic way but honestly for you to get an opportunity I think currently the way things are we do have a lot of marketplaces out there that do actually connect developers but I think the point is we want to create an opportunity where it isn't really limited to where you are in across Africa or which school I went to but now in 10 years a developer who just learns how to code in three months that has the skill they can easily now go on to Osamahost Nexus, prove that skill and they start getting matched to paid projects and companies now easily access AI solutions in every sector whether you're in agriculture you just started a farm and you want to create crop disease scanner you can easily go on to Osmo Horse Nexus. We certainly connect AI developers that have proven themselves in that specific sector and that specific skill set and now it's easy for you to obtain this tool or maybe it's manufacturing or education. But yeah another goal probably would be to expand into more sectors like how I mentioned that this year obviously we're looking into adding renewables energy as a sector but the goal is to be very much dominating a lot of more sectors throughout the years. Even sectors where it seemed like there was no room for AI but I think there's always a room to automate business and to actually speed up operations in every aspect every business. So there's always a room for AI solutions. In 10 years the world is very much dominant after we have a lot of opportunities for a lot of enterprises that are forefront in this whole AI run.

SPEAKER_04 25:37

So artificial intelligence and it's not criticism it's a reality and it's something that I believe in as well and I believe that everyone should get a somehow a grip on it should understand that it is a shift within culture it's a shift within industry within our world as we know it nowadays but I think we can say that in 10 years time or maybe we are already going through that but we are going through a true industry revolution maybe not so slow but we are going to change into artificial intelligence where hundreds of years ago we had the revolution industry where we had things automated and factories and so on. Now we're actually going to go into the computer way of thinking working and adapting maybe that's something that in 10 years time we'll look back and we say we saw it coming we went along with it and we are working with it because it is the future it is going to be a revolution for us. It's a new age revolution for us but it is a revolution so thank you very much I admire you listening to you and listening to the fire in you and the vision that you have and I can feel the emotion I can feel the eagerness and I can feel the wanting to get out there wanting to do more and wanting to find your way and like you said it very well you couldn't find the doors open so you opened your own doors that's the way it is and that's the way we should go for it. So thank you very much I don't know if you have some last words you want to say to the people listening honestly I just want to say thank you so much for the opportunity just to be able to say a lot more about Suma was Nexus and Red Create so are you I think I've lost we can maybe the internet went down or something maybe there was a power outage and we do need to go more into renewable industry so that we don't have power outages and we can continue to have these podcasts and we continue to talk with each other all over the world that's one of the beautiful things that we have nowadays and we didn't have years ago and that is the internet and the ability to actually do this remotely on all different parts of the world I mean I'm in Portugal now is in South Africa. Tony that we spoke about he's in the UK and as we speak I have workers all over Europe as well and we keep contact because we have the internet because we have all these programs and we have all the new technology that is helping us do so. It's really amazing to hear the drive the vision of young entrepreneurs and young adults that want to bring something new into this industry and to the world itself. And I think the biggest lessons there's two lessons here that I would like to reflect a little bit on and that is the the the artificial intelligence itself. And I remember some years ago when we first started talking about ChatGPT and how good or how bad it was that I will not use it I will use it and so on and all the conversations I'm sure everyone has had that conversation with someone at some point it's out here and we need to use it. We need to know how to use it in a structured way in a beneficial way and we also need to know the danger behind it. We can have machines programs softwares whatever application telling us what to do but we cannot lose ourselves. So we need to use it as a tool for example as a company if we use a certain artificial intelligence that helps us to program better to organize ourselves better to get a better world on expenses invoicing tracking works whatever analyzing data from the turbines analyzing errors from the turbines so that we are more targeted and thus more efficient then we should use it as that we cannot lose ourselves. If we are going to use it to pretend that we have something that we have not then eventually the truth will come out and it will get catch up with us. So learn how to use it use it as a tool embrace it as a tool and take the benefit from it as any other tool and the other big very big lesson or reflection that I want to take from this podcast is this mindset. Not always are we going to have the opportunity out there and not always isn't going to be easy not always is it going to be laid out for us the path is not laid out for us in the way that we want and sometimes we need to make our own path if we are going to wait for the perfect opportunity for the perfect timing for the perfect circumstances then we're never going to take any chances we never want to take any step forward we're never going to do anything with our lives and you see it here that the young adult 19 years old he found himself out there with not enough chances not enough opportunities for whatever reason that doesn't matter but he found himself in a situation where the opportunity was not there. He could not go further so he made his own opportunity and he's developing something but he's helping also other people to develop something that's very important help yourself then you can help others guys closing up the podcast thank you very much once again for everyone that participates everyone that listens to the podcast that follows us if you don't follow us then please start following then you can get more of this information we can share more we can discuss more I think it's time for someone in the field to reach out to me and to step up and say listen let's talk about a certain topic I have a lot of topics that I need to set together and develop and talk about but there's always things to talk with you guys personally directly feel free to reach out feel free to send me a message say what it is that you want to talk about I'll make some time and we'll make this happen. Once again thank you very much I just thought the message saying that he's bad that he died but that's the reason why we love to channel thank you very much for participating thank you very much for sharing your fire in you your devotion your motivation it's certainly very welcomed it's certainly taken into consideration listeners all the viewers thank you very much for once again participating listening to and seeing us I will see you guys out there stay safe the season is about to start make sure that you have everything ready to go make sure that you are healthy that you are safe and keep working keep building those turbines because we need more clean energy take care guys thank you thanks for joining us on AFF Winds of Change we appreciate your time and hope you enjoy this deep dive into the wind energy world stay tuned for our next episode where our fon Sopharia returns with more insights until then keep riding the winds of change