In a very short time, Artificial Intelligence has gone from being a dystopia, typical of science fiction series and movies, to a reality, increasingly present in our daily lives.
AI is already among the technologies that are revolutionizing sectors as diverse as communication, consumption, medicine, industry and even leisure time. It seems that, unlike other technological developments, AI is here to stay.
Artificial intelligence is also transforming the sector by leaps and bounds. Its use allows optimizing energy generation, facilitates the management of smart networks, facilitates response to demand and promotes the decentralization of energy systems. In short, it represents a great contribution to the value chain aimed at improving energy efficiency, in sustainability parameters.
Smart alliances
This speed in the evolution and implementation of AI has been greatly helped by the alliances and agreements signed between technological platforms, industrial sectors or public institutions.
There are many examples to illustrate the benefits of exchanging knowledge and expertise between companies or institutions from different fields and sectors. Going in this direction, in the case of Spain, is the alliance between Microsoft and the Generalitat of Catalonia to manage the Catalan hydrographic basins with Artificial Intelligence or the recent agreement reached between Naturgy and Amazon Web Services to implement digitalization and the use of intelligence. artificial, throughout the energy value chain.
Green and sustainable AI
Despite the promising prospects offered by the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the energy sector, there are some challenges to respond to, especially in terms of their environmental impact and the large energy consumption they require. The University of Massachusetts was one of the first institutions to warn of the environmental consequences that its use could entail due to its high energy consumption.
For this reason, different lines of work and research are already being developed in order to minimize this negative impact, whether using clean energy sources, such as solar or wind, to power data centers and computing systems or the so-called Green AI, whose purpose is to respond and integrate the criteria of environmental responsibility and sustainability in artificial intelligence systems, reducing energy consumption and the carbon footprint.
Everything suggests that with continuous advances in AI, energy systems will become more efficient, sustainable and resilient every day.