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Energy has always been a major research field within physics. Today, Energy has always been a major research field within physics. Today, research is being conducted on renewable, sustainable energy sources, energy saving measures and energy storage.

“We’ve been talking about energy for a long time, but now the time has come to talk about power, in other words energy per unit of time. This is more in line with current and future renewable energy sources, whereby we can capture the energy from continuous flows such as the sun’s rays, compared with fossil fuels which are a finite resource such as coal or oil, with a certain energy content per unit of weight.”

THE BIG SHIFT is not just about changing the units in energy calculations; above all, it is a change that has social, economic and political dimensions. Professor Volpe uses an analogy from the world of economics to describe how the shift is changing the way we think about energy.

“Say you get SEK 10 million as a one-off deposit in your bank account. Then you should try to manage your money so that it lasts for as long as possible. This can be compared to owning a finite energy source, such as oil. If, on the other hand, you know that you will receive SEK 100,000 a month forever, then it’s more a matter of how to use that money each month as wisely as possible. In the same way, you can count on the sun shining for as long as we are here on the Earth. So it’s all about harvesting the perpetual flow of energy in the best way.”

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In a previous issue, this magazine covered research on nanomaterials that use millions of tiny antennas to capture some of the sunlight’s energy in a thin layer applied on ordinary window glass in order to reduce heat loss through windows.

“A standard window pane lets about 85 percent of solar energy through,” explained research leader Alexandre Dmitriev at the time. “In this project, we’re trying to work with the remaining 15 percent.”

As energy research develops the use of renewable energy, it will become less important to control finite energy sources. This shift will affect not only the environment, but also geopolitics and the economic structures of our planet, explains Professor Volpe, pointing out that even countries that have traditionally had oil as a mainstay of their economy, such as Norway and Saudi Arabia, are now moving away from that dependence and preparing for the day when oil can no longer finance their nations’ welfare.

“The shift has been underestimated by many, and this thematic area is a tool for getting more people to see the full potential of the shift,” he continues. “It will happen regardless of whether or not we discuss it and reflect on it. Av�԰� enjoys a unique position in the Nordic region thanks to our interdisciplinary expertise within the field of energy. If we address these issues, we can become a leading university in this shift.”

RESEARCH INTO SOLVING the energy transition clearly shows how many different areas it encompasses. When it comes to our energy resources, it is primarily the natural sciences of physics, chemistry and biology that are used. In order to model and forecast energy production and consumption, we need knowledge about mathematics, computer science and economics. Social science research also comes into play, in order to get a picture of how energy, power and matter are perceived and used in different societies, while educational science gives us an understanding of how basic knowledge about energy and power can be disseminated and taught.

As a starting shot, the thematic area hosted an event last autumn at which researchers from the University Av�԰� and Chalmers University of Technology met with other stakeholders to discuss the shift from a number of different perspectives. The shift is happening quickly, the developments are almost exponential, and at the same time AI technology has made the need to move from resource thinking to flow thinking within the field of energy even more important.

“We’ve now added ‘AI’ to the name of the thematic area. It’s that important. Generative AI consumes huge amounts of energy, quite often unnecessarily.”

Generative AI is moving towards ever larger models, such as ChatGPT and Copilot. They can give you ‘okay’ answers to your questions, but that’s not good enough in industry, medicine or the research being carried out at the University Av�԰�.

“ChatGPT and similar AI models are jacks-of-all-trades, but we’re developing tailored models instead that focus on one or two questions, which they become very good at solving. When we developed a method to track the movement of individual plankton in water, we used an AI model which requires only a fraction of the power of ChatGPT. Creating energy-efficient AI models is an integral part of the great energy shift.”

AT THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS, a research team is also working on developing an alternative to quantum computers that can be used for generative AI and machine learning. By harnessing magnetic phenomena known as spintronics, calculations can be performed using a fraction of the energy required by today’s quantum computers.

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“Many researchers at the University Av�԰� are heading in the right direction when it comes to the energy shift, which is really the same thing we are seeing happening with materials. We recycle and reuse to reduce the extraction of our finite resources. Humanity once went from feeding on the flow from the earth in the form of the game we hunted and the berries we gathered, to becoming farmers who could store this flow in barns, which was also the start of the hierarchical world order. Maybe we’re now heading back there?”

Text: Olof Lönnehed