At Newcross Healthcare, we are pleased to be co-funding the ClimateHack.AI competition, to encourage people to rethink the UK’s power grid for a more sustainable future in healthcare.
Healthcare is becoming increasingly more technology-driven, which requires more energy to run. From scanners, monitors, and hospital equipment, to building services and the many tech and data solutions that doctors depend on, there are many aspects that require energy to ensure that vital hospitals and NHS trusts can continue to function.
In view of these trends, we are sponsoring ClimateHack.AI 2023: an international competition bringing together students at 18 world-leading universities across the UK, the US and Canada to advance research aimed at reducing annual carbon emissions by up to 100 kilotonnes in Great Britain alone and by on the order of megatonnes globally.
This year’s grand challenge is to develop AI models using 600 gigabytes of satellite imagery, numerical weather predictions and air quality data to produce more accurate near-term site-level forecasts for solar photovoltaic power generation (which converts sunlight directly into electricity).
Open Climate Fix estimate that more accurate solar power forecasting techniques have the potential to cut carbon emissions by up to 100 kilotonnes per year in Great Britain alone – and by up to 50 megatonnes per year by 2030 if deployed worldwide – by allowing grid operators to reduce the use of non-renewable sources to account for the variability of solar power generation.
The competition is being supported by Newcross Healthcare, UCL Grand Challenges, PGIM Real Estate via their RealAssetX innovation lab, Open Climate Fix and Climate X. The competition has a total prize pool of £20,000 to be shared across the top three winning teams.
Students have until Friday 8th March 2024 to make their final submission, with the top three students from each university being invited to present at in-person finals simultaneously taking place at UCL and Harvard University in April. Participants have already submitted 3,000+ AI models for evaluation on the DOXA AI platform.
The first-place team will be awarded £10,000, and their research contributions have the potential to be adopted by Open Climate Fix to produce more accurate solar power forecasts for the UK’s National Grid Electricity System Operator. When the competition ran for the first time as ClimateHack.AI 2022 between January and March 2022, the winning model was the most accurate model for predicting cloud movements that Open Climate Fix had seen to date.
Jeremy Lo Ying Ping, Lead Organiser of ClimateHack.AI 2023, said: “I am incredibly proud that we are running the competition once again for the second time. Tackling climate change is one of humanity’s most pressing challenges, and ClimateHack.AI presents talented students with the opportunity to make a positive real-world impact and directly contribute to solar power nowcasting research aimed at rapidly cutting greenhouse gas emissions. I am excited to see what solutions participants develop together as an international community of machine learning enthusiasts.”
Martynas Pocius, President of the UCL Artificial Intelligence Society, said: “As a finalist in the 2022 competition, I have seen first-hand how ClimateHack.AI can bring bright students together to form long-lasting connections and positively demonstrate how AI can be used for the benefit of society. We are honoured to be running the competition again with a more ambitious challenge and hope that ClimateHack.AI 2023 will help Open Climate Fix make further advances in their work to rapidly cut emissions with AI.”
Dan Travers, Co-founder of Open Climate Fix, said: “Open Climate Fix is completely committed to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible by developing open-source solar power forecasting solutions that help renewables become a greater share of the electricity supply. We were really impressed with what ClimateHack.AI participants produced in 2022 and look forward to seeing what further progress they make on this important challenge this time around.”
Stephen Pattrick, Co-founder and CEO of Newcross Healthcare, commented: “As a certified Carbon Neutral Business, it is important Newcross invests in initiatives that can make a real difference both nationally and globally to help ensure that changes to the climate do not become irreversible. As an organisation, we are integrating AI models across many of our product lines, not only to drive operational value for the healthcare sector, but to enable organisations to better plan and reduce needless travel of ours and their own workforce. We are thrilled to be aligned to this ClimateHack.AI initiative and look forward to the results of the competition and the potential it has to significantly reduce global carbon footprints.”
Raimondo Amabile, co-CEO at PGIM Real Estate and RealAssetX commented: “Partnering with leading universities, like UCL, is a vital component of building the ecosystem of RealAssetX, which seeks to develop new technologies that don’t exist today. ClimateHack.AI’s aim to reduce carbon emissions aligns completely with RealAssetX’s focus on driving transformation within the real asset industry through leveraging forward-thinking research and development in sustainability. We are proud to support the competition and look forward to seeing the progress made by this important initiative.”
The World Health Organisation estimates that at least 50% of the world’s population currently lacks the essential infrastructure required for health services. While the issue is complex, a clear opportunity exists to contribute by providing reliable, cost-effective renewable energy.
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