How much will electricity consumption from data centres grow from today’s 1% of the global total? 40-fold by 2030? Or a more manageable 5-fold? Or less? Sean Ratka and Francisco Boshell at IRENA try to answer this question by looking at the innovations being made by the tech industry to drive down power costs and emissions. The evidence is promising. Though data centre computing output jumped 6- fold between 2010 and 2018, their energy … [Read more...]
AI software to improve Nuclear reactor designs, performance, safety, lifetimes
Nuclear plants have high up-front costs, complex processes occurring all the way down to the molecular level throughout their decades-long lifetimes, and strict safety criteria. Modelling all the parameters and predicting the outcomes has traditionally begun with theory and observation followed by simulations, the results of which are fed back into the next round of theories, and repeated until those results look valid. The quality of the … [Read more...]
Energy Data prototype: the “Living Lab” households
Everyone in the energy sector is talking about big – and intelligent – data. But it’s still early days and the benefits from all that potential are yet to register. The goal is greater energy efficiency; in consumption but also in planning future infrastructure and services that are tailored to local – not just regional - needs. Smart meters are only the first step, says Dr Richard Dobson at Energy Systems Catapult. The end game is the emergence … [Read more...]
Solar energy is green. Solar panels are not. AI can revolutionise their design
Solar panels are manufactured at 2,000˚C, a temperature so high it requires fossil-fuel power. They are also made using rare earth elements, the supply of which has both capacity and political issues. A new and global project is using artificial intelligence (AI) to rapidly create new designs with new materials that can make their manufacture greener and cheaper. The new designs may even bring their manufacture back to your home country, says … [Read more...]
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