Le Goff, Thomas, 'AI-Driven Sustainability in the Energy Sector: Regulatory and Governance Issues' (2025), in Joshua C Gellers, and Henrik Skaug Sætra (eds), Environments, in Philipp Hacker (ed.), Oxford Intersections: AI in Society (Oxford, online edn, Oxford Academic, 20 Mar. 2025 - ), https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198945215.003.0027, accessed 3 Sept. 2026.
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) systems into the energy sector has the potential to foster environmental sustainability and mitigate the impacts of climate change. This article provides a comprehensive exploration of the regulatory and governance issues arising from the use of AI systems within the energy sector, with a particular focus on sustainability. It provides an overview of AI applications deployed by energy companies that contribute to environmental sustainability, especially in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning toward low carbon electricity production, such as the optimization of the production of renewable sources of energy, predictive maintenance, and smart-grid technologies. The article presents the legal challenges these applications raise in terms of cybersecurity, safety, privacy, or other regulatory issues, such as compliance with the EU’s AI Act. Understanding these risks is key to ensuring that energy companies deploy AI responsibly. The article argues that energy companies are in the best position to drive sustainable AI innovation, as they are in the front line of the fight against climate change, are familiar with industries’ environmental issues, and can use low carbon electricity sources to power their systems, even though the deployment of AI systems at scale requires a large amount of computing resources, water, and materials in order to function. By adopting a sustainable-by-design approach, energy companies would not only advance environmental objectives but also mitigate their own environmental footprint as well as that of the many industries that use the energy they produce, therefore exemplifying the possible synergy between “green” and “digital” transitions.