Well, it’s my first week back at the RAND School of Public Policy for my final quarter with the Master’s of Technology Policy (MTP) program! Not a moment too soon as June slowly creeps up on DC with warmer temperatures, cherry blossoms, and the mosquitoes. 🦟

I’m taking some pretty interesting classes for my last quarter including supply chains! Very on theme given what’s happening with the global energy supply chain with oil and natural gas, semiconductors, and even helium getting disrupted as the Iran conflict continues. 😅

I found some interesting articles this week:

Caio! 👋

Nate

Gas Turbine Prices Are Up and Aren't Going Down Anytime Soon (AI & Energy): A report reveals gas turbine installation costs are rising significantly with longer completion timelines, creating challenges for energy infrastructure as global power demand surges.

The End Of Computing As We Know It (AI & Data Centers/Hardware): Modern AI demands massive energy, prompting engineers to rethink fundamental chip design. This approach leverages thermal noise in transistors to achieve probabilistic computing, potentially bypassing conventional power constraints. The video explores how this method works on standard silicon.

AI Data Centers That Help the Grid with Emerald AI (AI & Energy): Dr. Varun Sivaram of Emerald AI discusses software that makes AI data centers power-flexible, enabling 25% power reduction during grid stress without breaking compute performance. Covers workload shifting across time, geography, and on-site energy coordination.

The Data Heat Island Effect: Quantifying the Impact of AI Data Centers in a Warming World (AI & Environment): This paper uses remote sensing data to quantify that AI data centers increase surrounding land surface temperature by 2 degrees celsuis on average after operations begin, potentially affecting over 340 million people globally through localized microclimate zones.

Energy-Efficient and High-Performance Data Transfers with DRL Agents (AI & Energy): This paper presents a deep reinforcement learning framework that adjusts application-layer transfer settings to balance throughput and energy efficiency, achieving up to 25% throughput increase and 40% energy reduction at end systems.

Does AI Value The Environment? Evaluation of AI Value Alignment (AI & Environment): This paper assesses AI alignment with environmental values by comparing environmental valuations from three open-source AI models (Gemma 2, Llama 3.1, and Mistral) with those of human stakeholders using choice experiment studies from 21 countries.

AI Agents in Sustainability (AI & Sustainability): Whitepaper exploring the role of AI agents in sustainability applications.

CELS Playbook: Clean Electricity for Local and State Governments (AI & Energy): A comprehensive strategy guide presenting tangible policy actions for state and local leaders to deploy clean energy and grid infrastructure. Covers regulatory reform, permitting modernization, grid planning, and utility incentive realignment.

GUARDRAILS Act (AI Policy & Governance): Guaranteeing and Upholding Americans' Right to Decide Responsible AI Laws and Standards. Legislation to repeal executive order preventing states from regulating AI, preserving state authority on AI safeguards.

The Development Economics of AI: Lessons and Questions (AI & Multiple Applications): Oliver Hanney and Deena Mousa recap the Ideas in Development series on AI and Development covering binding constraints, data desert problems, access vs value capture, and AI impact on growth escalators lower-income countries depend on.

Emerging AI Tools for Literature Review - Workshop Recording (AI & Multiple Applications): Library workshop materials on generative AI for literature review, covering AI tool comparisons, LLM evaluations, limitations, citation methods, and prompting strategies.

National Artificial Intelligence Association - AI on Capitol Hill Series 001 - Rep. Bill Foster (AI & Multiple Applications): NAIA launches AI on Capitol Hill series with one-on-one conversations with influential Members of Congress on AI policy. First guest: Congressman Bill Foster, the only Ph.D. physicist in Congress and a member of the House Financial Services and Science, Space, and Technology committees.

Ecodex (AI & Environment): One-stop shop for carbon data providing access to 45+ databases and 1 million+ structured emission factors through a single interface. Offers Ecodex Platform and Ecodex Connect (carbon ETL solution). Location: Europe.

Squid - YC W26 (AI & Energy): AI-powered grid planning platform that gives utilities a single, trusted model for consistent planning decisions. Founded by team with experience at National Grid, Octopus Energy, and AWS. Location: United States.

Voxel Energy (AI & Energy): Building energy-independent data centers with on-site solar generation, distribution, and storage for 24/7 power. Founded by ex-Tesla entrepreneurs, using second-life EV batteries with DC microgrid architecture. Location: United States.

Database of Emerging Large-Load Tariffs - DELTa (AI & Energy): Comprehensive database of 65+ US utility tariffs for managing large-load customers, with interactive map showing status across 34 states. Price: FREE!

Heatmap News Electricity Tracker (AI & Energy): Interactive electricity data visualization tool from Heatmap News covering US power generation, demand, and energy market trends. Price: Freemium.

Scientific Paper Planner (AI & Workforce Development): AI-powered tool for structuring scientific research papers with intelligent mentoring through hypothesis formation, methodology design, and comprehensive research planning. Price: FREE!

If you have resources that you wish to submit to the AI & Environment Resource Hub, fill out the Google Form! Thank you for suggesting resources to add to the Resource Hub. 🙃

Thanks for reading the 35th issue of The Climate Code! It means a lot to me and we have more coming in the future, so definitely stick around! 💚

Nate

P.S.

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