INSIGHT: Will AI Increase or Decrease Power Grid Efficiency?
Many believe greater computer power will mean lower carbon emissions, but Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy’s Peter Fox-Penner says advances in technology like 5G, autonomous vehicles, and artificial intelligence may increase total power demand when our country is moving toward decarbonization.
Conventional wisdom is that greater computing power distributed at the edges of the power network will unlock new opportunities to lower the system costs and carbon emissions, and that advances in AI will increase energy efficiency in the U.S.