Artificial intelligence will help improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions

Photo by: Dawid Zawiła / Unsplash

Approaching the Sustainable Development Goals through artificial intelligence is feasible. Society can already use vast amounts of data to create specialised AI and achieve improvements in a wide range of industries, RBC writes.

The use of AI tools in energy and transport systems could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 4% by 2030, according to a PwC report.

For example, AI can be effectively built into traffic management. Technologies are able to predict traffic congestion, suggest alternative routes, and estimate the need for different vehicles by zone and time, based on the needs of citizens. This solution not only facilitates mobility but also minimises the impact on the environment.

AI-driven renewable energy operating systems analyse electricity generation and use and then optimise electricity imports and exports based on tariffs. The result is energy savings of up to 80%. This approach works for a district, an industrial park, a village or even a large city, improving energy efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions.

AI can also improve the efficiency of renewable energy. Some companies are already using such technology to find out the daily availability of energy-generating capacity: wind turbines, hydroelectric power plants and biofuel plants. In this way, it is possible to forecast the amount of energy that needs to be produced in the coming days.

AI is improving the sustainability of a wide variety of industries. One striking Russian example is technology based on artificial vision and advanced detection and classification models. Such a solution, developed by Sber, has helped the waste recycling plant Sever LLC to increase the amount of recyclable waste recognised by 13%, and Hevel LLC to increase the efficiency of solar panel cells and reduce the proportion of defective cells. All of these measures reduce the amount of waste produced and, consequently, the burden on the environment.

The development of AI in Russia is becoming a key objective. On 24 November, for example, at Sber’s international conference on artificial intelligence, Journey, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed to ensure the mass adoption of AI and data-driven decision-making. In order to remove barriers and speed up the development, testing and industrial implementation of promising AI technologies in various areas of the economy and social sphere, the regulatory framework will be finalised as soon as possible.

Cover photo: Ross Domke / Unsplash