The next decade will need to see the fastest economic transformation in history towards an economy run almost entirely on clean electricity. Wind and solar power, combined with a scaled-out transmission system, are expected to form the backbone of the new energy system.

But there is one glaring problem: there is no global pipeline of bankable wind and solar projects that takes us close to stabilising global temperature at a “low- overshoot scenario” of, say, 1.6°C–1.7°C. Yet recent developments in AI create the potential to identify and map, at an individual asset level, the clean energy infrastructure for a low-overshoot scenario.

While some digital tools are already being utilised by energy organisations, we believe new tools, for example generative AI, have a genuinely disruptive potential for streamlining regulatory processes such as permitting and assessments and scenario development.The White Paper proposes how artificial intelligence tools can  support the scale- out of clean energy infrastructure globally. The authors propose the tool could identify $1 trillion of projects within 12 months and $2 trillion within 24 months.