Facebook to use artificial intelligence in bid to improve renewable energy storage

Facebook and Carnegie Mellon University have announced they are trying to use artificial intelligence (AI) to find new "electrocatalysts" that can help to store electricity generated by renewable energy sources. Electrocatalysts can be used to convert excess solar and wind power into other fuels, such as hydrogen and ethanol, that are easier to store. However, today's electrocatalysts are rare and expensive, with platinum being a good example, and finding new ones hasn't been easy as there are billions of ways that elements can be combined to make them. Researchers in the catalysis community can currently test tens of thousands of potential catalysts a year but Facebook and Carniegie Mellon believe they can increase the number to millions, or even billions, of catalysts with the help of AI. The social media giant and the university on Wednesday released some of their own AI software "models" that can help to find new catalysts but they want other scientists to have a go as well.