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“The energy transition won’t succeed without interdisciplinary collaboration”, says , and he should know. He has a background in electrical engineering and computer science, but now, as an associate professor at ����ֱ��, conducts business economics research into the future of energy companies.

All the pieces of the puzzle

“Our energy system is like an ecosystem”, says Farrokhfal. “It consists of countless jigsaw pieces and all the interactions between them: energy companies, solar panels, consumers, governments and so on. If you want to move forward, you need all the pieces.” Artificial intelligence makes it possible to test and optimise decisions with a lot of data in that complex system.

But if you want to model all the pieces properly, you need broad collaboration between researchers, and that doesn’t always run smoothly. “In communities of computer scientists or engineers, I see papers that are too one-sided. Something can be a strong technological idea, but it must also be based on a business model that works.”

I thought I knew it all

“When I switched communities and came to the business school, I thought I knew all about solar panels and energy storage in batteries, and about how trading works in the electricity market. But I discovered a whole new perspective, a much more practical one: the business perspective. And then there’s government regulation and human behaviour, aspects you mustn’t lose sight of in energy transition.”

So how do you consolidate all of this? “Academics are still rated mainly for citations and journal publications, and most of those are monodisciplinary. That’s no incentive. The Dutch Research Council does encourage researchers to work on interdisciplinary projects though, and now we’re looking at how we can work together with Delft and Leiden, which is also good. The policy research that Leiden does, for instance, is an interesting addition for me. Delft University of Technology brings the technical perspective. Add our knowledge of management and behaviour, and all in all we have a really good understanding of our energy systems.”

Nitrogen problem

Farrokhfal’s role in the focus group of around 15 researchers is often that of interpreter. “Each discipline has its own jargon. I know all those languages and can sometimes clear up any confusion.” This is handy for AI newcomer . He has been studying the nitrogen problem for 35 years, and has been Professor of Environment and Sustainability in Leiden for a year. That too much ammonia and nitrogen oxides cause unacceptable harm to nature has finally hit home with the educated public, but there isn’t a solution yet.

Last autumn Erisman was asked to join the focus group on AI research in sustainability and energy that is looking into potential collaboration in the Zuid-Holland AI knowledge cluster. “Now’s a good time to start using AI in our field. We’ve got lots of tools and data at the Institute of Environmental Sciences; the AI experts’ self-learning models will help us get more out of these. We’ve got a model of a materials footprint and transport, for instance. How much goes into a city, how long does it stay there and what is lost and what reused? The model is data-linked, but doesn’t yet use data from social media or satellites.”

Access to network

Erisman is glad that he now knows from his own university, who, as head of the Natural Computing Research Group at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science, is on various AI focus groups for the Zuid-Holland universities. The AI for Energy and Sustainability focus group has given Erisman access to the network of , section head of the Algorithmics Group at Delft University of Technology and chair of the Energy and Sustainability workgroup of the (NL AIC). De Weerdt: “At the NL AIC we’re planning a simulation model of Europe, for instance, that we want to fill with a whole bunch of data. Then smart algorithms will be able to suggest the best policies.”

From dumb network to smart grid

De Weerdt is an algorithm expert who spends much of his time on applications and networking with industry. Like Farrokhfal, he spends most of his time working on energy transition. “Smart grid is the buzzword but we’ve still got a dumb network. You need smart planning so power stations can look at the weather forecast and adapt their production to the solar and wind energy supply, for example. You should charge electric cars at times when the other usage is low. AI is essential here.”

De Weerdt: “Thanks to the focus group I’ve got to know , who as Professor of Governance of Sustainability in Leiden looks at how people deal with new systems. That aspect is really important too. It’s much easier for the three universities to connect in our AI knowledge cluster, and that means solving a few more pieces of the puzzle.”

Below is an example of the work of each of the three professors: AI-related research in the area of sustainability and energy.