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Can AI help connect more solar and wind farms to the power grid?

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge

The US Department of Energy (DOE) thinks AI can speed up the process of connecting new energy projects to the power grid.

It announced $30 million in funding now available through its Artificial Intelligence for Interconnection (AI4IX) program. The DOE is interested in fostering partnerships between grid operators and software and energy project developers to get new sources of electricity online faster.

The plan is to use AI to streamline the interconnection application process that’s currently painfully slow. The delay is holding up efforts to get new solar and wind farms up and running. Pressure is building to clear that backlog with electricity demand on the rise — ironically in no small part because of the artificial intelligence boom.

Pressure is building to clear the backlog with electricity demand on the rise — in no small part because of the AI boom

As it is, it takes up to seven years to connect a new electricity generation project to the grid in the US, and wait times have been increasing. As a result, there’s an enormous backlog of 2,600 gigawatts worth of new energy generation and storage projects awaiting interconnection. That’s roughly twice as much capacity as…

Read the full story at The Verge.

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