Eight projects that aim to harness AI to boost energy efficiency, optimise renewables, or decarbonise industry and transport are set to share £1.73m in funding
The government has announced fresh funding awards from its Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Decarbonisation Innovation Programme, with eight projects set to receive a share of £1.73m of funding.
Projects ranging from AI-enabled systems to improve weather forecasting for solar energy production through to AI-optimised energy efficiency software are to be awarded grants through the programme, which forms part of the government's £1bn Net Zero Innovation Portfolio.
"The UK continues to push the boundaries in how advanced AI can help tackle some of the most important challenges facing our nation," said Minister for Affordability and Skills Amanda Solloway. "These projects will use our world-leading research and scientific expertise to enhance our renewables sector and boost our energy efficiency through the use of AI in the transport, land use, and electricity space.
"Cutting edge innovation like this will help ensure our energy security for decades to come and create hundreds of jobs in the process."
The funding is split across projects that tackle decarbonisation challenges in three sectors: the generation, demand, transmission, and distribution of electricity; transport decarbonisation; and land use for renewables generation.
The grants include over £260,000 to support a University of Nottingham project to improve the accuracy of weather forecasting for solar projects using a combination of ground-based cameras and satellite images to analyse cloud cover and movement.
Meanwhile, CarbonLaces Ltd in London has received £343,000 to develop a smart technology that 'learns' and adjusts how electricity is used at homes, so as to improve grid efficiency and reduce energy costs, and Optimise-AI in Cardiff has been awarded £125,000 to support its plans to use AI to optimise energy efficiency in commercial buildings.
In addition, Flexible Power Systems Ltd in Kent has received £209,000 for a project that aims to use AI to optimise electric fleet operations and charging schedules, EDF Energy's R&D UK Centre Ltd received £23,500 for a project to use AI to determine how to position wind turbines to optimise offshore wind farm generation, and OnGen Ltd in Edinburgh received £326,000 to support the development of AI software that can recommend what low-carbon technologies could be used for different buildings.
Viscount Camrose, Minister for AI, said: "AI is the defining technology of our generation and the UK is harnessing its enormous potential to improve public services, ramp up productivity and tackle shared global challenges, particularly climate change. This funding backs brilliant British innovation to drive forward new AI solutions which will help us reach our net zero ambitions."
The new funding awards were also welcomed Professor Adam Sobey, programme director of data centric engineering at The Alan Turing Institute, who said: "AI has an important role to play in helping us understand our transport systems, energy infrastructure, farms and buildings. These projects will allow the UK to reduce emissions from operations and embedded carbon in production, helping the nation meet challenging climate change targets. We look forward to working with these innovative new projects through the AI for Decarbonisation Virtual innovation Centre of Excellence."
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