Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Quantum computing opportunities in renewable energy

Nature Computational Science volume 1, pages 90–91 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

To the Editor — Quantum computing is a technology that is rapidly crossing over from physics experiments to serious, practical business. Companies, ranging from the mightiest technology corporations (Google, Amazon, IBM) to new start-ups (Zapata Computing, IonQ, Xanadu) have poured millions of dollars into quantum computing research and development1,2, while the US government has created a National Quantum Initiative3 to coordinate work on this important sector.

Even as all this activity occurs, there is an increasing need to more fully explore the application of these devices. There is much difficult work ahead in the translation of quantum computers from theoretical advantages over classical ones into the practical applications that will justify their production. Adding difficulty to this is the large gap that exists between the quantum devices of today and the near future — small and relatively error prone — and the theoretical constructs of quantum computers that theorists have worked with in exploring quantum advantages4.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Carson, B. Protocol https://www.protocol.com/manuals/quantum-computing/vc-investments-bullish-quantum-computing-coronavirus-toggle-gdpr (2020).

  2. Gibney, E. Nature 574, 22–24 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. H.R.6227 - National Quantum Initiative Act (US Congress, 2018); https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/6227

  4. Preskill, J. In APS March Meeting 2019 R62.00001 (APS, 2019).

  5. Yuan, X. Science 369, 1054–1055 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Chang, C.-Y., Jones, E. & Graf, P. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.07852 (2020).

  7. Jones, E. B. et al. In 2020 IEEE Power & Energy Society General Meeting (PESGM) https://doi.org/10.1109/PESGM41954.2020.9281420 (IEEE, 2020).

  8. Thapliyal, H., Munoz-Coreas, E., Varun, T. S. S. & Humble, T. IEEE Trans. Emerging Topics Comput. https://doi.org/10.1109/TETC.2019.2910870 (2019).

  9. IBM https://www.ibm.com/case-studies/exxonmobil/ (2020).

  10. US Department of Energy https://science.osti.gov/Initiatives/QIS/QIS-Centers (2021).

Download references

Acknowledgements

I thank the workshop organizers for their support: H. Muller (University of Victoria, Canada), the general chair of IEEE Quantum Week 2021, and T. Humble (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), the conference workshops co-chair. I thank Z. (Henry) Huang (IEEE laboratory fellow, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and research professor, Washington State University) and D. Merfeld (vice president and chief technology officer, GE Renewable) for sharing their prospective on the quantum computing needs across the renewable energy sector in the invited talks. I thank all the speakers for sharing their research in the field and all the workshop participant for their insights and valuable discussions. I thank Z. Eldredge (US Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office), the co-organizer of the workshop, for the many discussions and his contribution to make the workshop a success. I thank the US Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office and GE Research for supporting this effort.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. GE Research, Niskayuna, NY, USA

    Annarita Giani

Authors
  1. Annarita Giani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Annarita Giani.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Giani, A. Quantum computing opportunities in renewable energy. Nat Comput Sci 1, 90–91 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-021-00032-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-021-00032-z

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Anthropocene

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Anthropocene newsletter — what matters in anthropocene research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Anthropocene