Sustainable Energy without Fear : The Role of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

The words ‘sustainable energy’ usually provoke both hope for a cleaner future – and doubts. How can the whole world make a fast, fair and affordable transition away from fossil fuels? The doubts are there for good reason. Never has the world experienced such a sweeping change of such a fundamental aspect of living. Energy markets and electricity infrastructure were designed to provide flexibility in supply: energy was centralized, reliable and predictable. Sustainable energy technologies, many of which are getting cheaper by the year, supply electricity that is often decentralized, variable and more difficult to predict. The result? The more ‘sustainables’ we introduce into our markets and grids, the more we suffer unintended consequences like price and grid instability. The answer? Flexibility in demand – we need to create markets that support real-time dynamic pricing, virtual storage capacity and nimble, trackable localized trading in smart cities. In this speech, Professor Wolfgang Ketter will show examples of how AI and machine-learning agents can run these fast and nimble markets for us.

Programme