Quantum computing is currently at the forefront of science and technology, and addressing climate change is a challenge for all of humanity. U.S. Department of Energy experts believe that quantum computing and classical computing should work together to address today's climate change challenges.
Rima Kasia Oueid, head of business at the U.S. Department of Energy, made the above statement at the recent IEEE Quantum Computing Climate Change Summit, which focused on how today's quantum computing can be applied to combat climate change.
"People talk about quantum sensors and how they can use it to help retrieve better, more accurate images," Oueid said during the roundtable discussion, "so that we can spot methane leaks and other greenhouse gas emissions." She sees this as a very valuable and useful tool that can help people fight climate change and hold emission subjects accountable.
"At the same time, I think classical computing can also be beneficial, but we may need to solve the problem (of climate change) in another way." "For example, investigate what's happening on Earth to reduce [greenhouse gas] emissions by doing the right thing," Oueid said. "IEEE, short for Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, is an international association of electronics and information science engineers and the world's largest nonprofit professional and technical society, based in New York, USA. IEEE Quantum is a future-oriented initiative launched by the IEEE, a global community dedicated to solving problems related to quantum computing, engineering, algorithms, and technology.
The forum featured John Levy, president of seeqC, an American quantum computing startup, Steve Brierley, founder of quantum computing software developer Riverlane, Masayoshi Terabe, head of quantum transformation at Sumitomo Corporation in Japan, and the roundtable panel discussors included the Commercialization Executive of the U.S. Department of Energy. Rima Kasia Oueid, Dr Mansour Sharabiani, Imperial College London, et al.
Image from IEEE Quantum
Brierley, founder of Riverlane, believes that the principles of quantum mechanics can enable people to form a deep and complete understanding of nature. Quantum computing uses these principles to perform complex calculations, enabling the simulation of chemical processes such as battery materials science and carbon capture.
"Quantum computing has the potential to solve the world's largest climate challenge." Levy, president of SEEQC, believes that this can be reflected in three aspects: carbon capture, grid optimization, and battery technology. For example, quantum can potentially simulate the quantum mechanical processes of target molecules and identify catalysts; it can potentially optimize the grid in the microsecond range to solve the challenges of wind and solar power supply; and it can potentially simulate the excited state of oxide materials to speed up battery research and development and improve efficiency.
Levy said SEEQC's efforts to climate change are reflected in energy conservation efforts. By comparing the energy consumption of classical circuits with quantum circuits under the same conditions, the results show that the energy consumption of Google's QPU (that is, quantum processing unit) is much lower than that of classical circuits. SEEQC is doing the same, building and optimizing energy-efficient, scalable quantum systems.
Terabe from Sumitomo, Japan, describes a number of future scenarios in which quantum computing can solve the challenge of climate change: paradigm shifts in transportation systems by controlling flying cars in real time; developing quantum artificial intelligence to reduce the energy consumption of current artificial intelligence and achieve a balance between supply and demand in the era of renewable energy; and creating quantum smart cities with low energy consumption and good environments.
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