Reducing Emissions Using Artificial Intelligence in the Energy Sector: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Global warming is a significant threat to the future of humankind. It is caused by greenhouse gases that accumulate in the atmosphere. CO2 emissions are one of the main drivers of global warming, and the energy sector is one of the main contributors to CO2 emissions. Recent technological advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have accelerated the adoption of AI in numerous applications to solve many problems. This study carries out a scoping review to understand the use of AI solutions to reduce CO2 emissions in the energy sector. This paper follows the PRISMA-ScR guidelines in reporting the findings. The academic search engine Google Scholar was utilized to find papers that met the review criteria. Our research question was “How is artificial intelligence used in the energy sector to reduce CO2 emissions?” Search phrases and inclusion criteria were decided based on this research question. In total, 186 papers from the search results were screened, and 16 papers fitting our criteria were summarized in this study. The findings indicate that AI is already used in the energy sector to reduce CO2 emissions. Three main areas of application for AI techniques were identified. Firstly, AI models are employed to directly optimize energy generation processes by modeling these processes and determining their optimal parameters. Secondly, AI techniques are utilized for forecasting, which aids in optimizing decision-making, energy transmission, and production planning. Lastly, AI is applied to enhance energy efficiency, particularly in optimizing building performance. The use of AI shows significant promise of reducing CO2 emissions in the energy sector.