Storage & Grid Systems

U.S. electricity demand could increase by as much as 32% by 2030, driven in part by artificial intelligence, data centers and the electrification of transportation and industry, according to a new University of Houston report examining what it will take to expand and modernize the nation’s electricity system.

As the global demand for reliable electricity grows, University of Houston researchers are deploying artificial intelligence to solve a critical vulnerability in the power grid: the unpredictable aging and decay of large-scale batteries. The latest research from Xingpeng Li, associate professor at the Cullen College of Engineering, aims to make power grid batteries more efficient as solar and wind power expand.

UH engineering Professor Yan Yao discovers that lithium dendrites, a flaw in batteries, are unexpectedly strong and brittle allowing them to act like rigid needles inside batteries