Google’s Project Suncatcher to harness Sun to power next wave of AI

Google has announced a new initiative named ‘Project Suncatcher’. Under this new project, Google is trying to explore how solar-powered satellites that are equipped with the company’s own TPU AI chips (Tensor Processing Unit Artificial Intelligence chip) can be used to harness the Sun’s full power.

The real aim of this project is to create an abundant energy source for the company as it aggressively bets on artificial intelligence (AI)-led services and platforms. Currently, the biggest limiting factor of the burgeoning AI technology is the availability of power. Data centres consume heavy power sources for enabling computing in the current AI era.

These energy sources have to be diverted from civilian uses. It is a known fact that there are a few very countries with energy surplus status and most are facing the challenge of rapid growth in usage. At this point of time, the emergence of AI has aggravated the challenge. Because while energy production is growing at a snail’s pace all through the world, the growth of AI has been pretty rapid. In this context, experts have started warning against the flip side of AI growth.

‘Project Suncatcher’ of Google is trying to solve this problem. If it becomes successful, then the company will tap unlimited source of solar energy through satellite technology. Satellites are placed at outer sphere of atmosphere and will not face much atmospheric disruption in their exposure to the Sun. So, it is assumed that this will work better than traditional solar panel sources on the earth.

India should draw many lessons from such an experiment. With the largest talent base on AI technology and $290-billion IT industry, India aspires to be at the forefront of AI technology in the coming decade.

But that can only happen, if India is able to provide enough computing power for this new technology domain. It is a well-known fact that the country’s dependence on fuel-powered energy sources remains high though renewable energy has been leading from the front.

Many states are counted as power-deficit states and depend on inter-state transfers for their energy needs. Against this backdrop, India should invest in R&D to tap unlimited source of energy coming from the nature- whether the Sun or air or ocean.

Recently, we have seen Google’s multi-billion dollar investment plan in Vishakhapatnam for developing an AI-hub. This hub will have large data centres to provide huge computing power for AI technology. Many well-known corporate houses are betting big on data centre business, knowing the future demand.

If India can develop any unique technology for generating power, then it will not only solve the country’s energy problem, the country but also can export power to other nations. With growth of AI technology, the demand for energy is set to increase in India.

As it is very difficult to ramp up fuel-powered energy sources in a short-period of time, the country is likely to face an energy crunch in the next decade. Unless, some other sources of energy are tapped or fuel-powered energy sources are ramped up urgently, this is going to create severe energy deficit in the country.