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Groundbreaking report provides ambitious framework for accelerating clean energy deployment while minimizing risks and costs in the face of climate change
One hundred clean energy and artificial intelligence experts gathered in Argonne for two days to discuss how to secure America's energy future and leadership. The AI for Energy report outlines their vision.
In the face of accelerating climate change, the US aims to reduce net carbon emissions from its economy to zero by 2050. Achieving this goal will require an unprecedented deployment of clean energy technologies. And a significant transformation of the country's energy infrastructure.
It is an exceptionally complex and daunting challenge. But it is not impossible if we harness the transformative capabilities of our technology artificial intelligence (AI) to help.
This is according to a groundbreaking new report from leading energy researchers and scientists from America's national laboratories. The report is titled AI for Energy. It provides a bold framework for how the U.S. Department of Energy (DO) can use AI to accelerate the country's clean energy transformation.
“AI can manage complexity and make connections across multiple scientific and engineering disciplines, multiple model and data types, and multiple outcome priorities. This can enable AI to create solutions for the'major challenges' of large-scale and rapid deployment of clean energy that conventional methods cannot address,” said Rick Stevens, associate laboratory director of the Computing, Environment and Life Sciences Directorate DO's Argonne National Laboratory.
The report identifies major challenges in five areas of America's energy infrastructure. These include nuclear energy, the electricity grid, carbon management, energy storage and energy materials. Three common needs emerged from these challenges. The first is the need for fast and highly reliable computer-aided design and testing of materials and systems. The second is the need to improve scientists' ability to pinpoint uncertainties in their predictions and how systems will perform. The third is the need for AI to integrate data from multiple sources and formats.
“AI's ability to manage complexity and make connections between multiple disciplines, models and data types can help us solve the problems'big challenges' of deploying clean energy in ways that conventional methods cannot.” — Rick Stevens, associate laboratory director for the Computing, Environment and Life Sciences Directorate at Argonne
If the US can overcome these challenges, the benefits could be significant.
AI has the potential to reduce the costs of designing, licensing, deploying, operating and maintaining energy infrastructure by hundreds of billions of dollars,” said Kirsten Laurin-Kovitz, associate laboratory director of the Nuclear Technologies and National Security Directorate at Argonne.“It can also speed up design, implementation and licensing processes. These can take up to 50% of the time it takes for a new technology to reach the market.”
To realize this potential, scientists, industry players and policymakers will need to work together more closely than ever before. The AI for Energy report is a strong first step. About 100 experts from the fields AImachine learning and energy met for two days in Argonne in December 2023. Their goal was to map out how to do it best AI to solve America's energy challenges. The attendees then worked together for three months to create the report.
The report was produced by Argonne and DO's Idaho National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and National Energy Technology Laboratory. Additional key contributors included DO's Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National LaboratoryPacific Northwest National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.
“Argonne is grateful for the opportunity to leverage his expertise in advancing the AI for energy efforts,” says Claus Daniel, associate laboratory director of the Advanced Energy Technologies Directorate in Argonne“We like to help you DO further U.S. global leadership in clean energy technology. And help DO achieve its mission to secure America's energy independence and security for decades to come.”
You can read the whole thing AI for Energy Report here.
This story originally appeared on Argonne National Laboratory website.
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