Main Interview _________________________________________________________________________________________________
The most popular conversation around data centers and the electricity grid typically follows a similar pattern: the facilities are enormous and have a huge, growing demand for power, and the grid is the victim forced to keep up. However, Behnam Zakeri, Assistant Professor and Deputy Head of the Institute for Data, Energy, and Sustainability( IDEaS) at Vienna University of Economics and Business( WU), offers a more holistic- and optimistic- vision.
Behnam’ s recent research, The AI-energy storage nexus: opportunities for clean energy transitions, argues that data centers are not automatically good or bad for the grid, and which one they turn out to be depends almost entirely on where they are built and the rules around them. While there are major concerns about the energy and climate footprint of AI, the paper suggests the challenge can be turned into an opportunity by pairing AI growth with the deployment of clean energy technologies, in general, and energy storage solutions particularly.
Before we get into the research itself, we’ re keen to explore Behnam’ s background and how it led him to this research.“ I’ m a mechanical engineer by training, and after a few years working on building energy services and technologies, I was drawn to the bigger picture,” Behnam opens.“ I realized that technology development is crucial, but the shift to a cleaner, more sustainable energy system must happen at the system level, not only in labs. That concept pulled me toward the regulation, markets, and policy that decide whether promising technologies ever get built and later commercialized.”
Prior to joining WU, Behnam spent time at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis( IIASA), a global research institute where he worked alongside bodies such as the Green Climate Fund and the United Nations.“ The job was to give national authorities technical support for energy planning: scenarios, pathways, and policy design looking ten or 20 years ahead,” he recalls.“ It was great to see how different countries tackle energy problems, as the potential and challenges vary enormously. There is no fit-for-all solution, as something that works in one place can fail in another. It’ s that creativity and problem solving that captivates me.”
In 2024, Behnam moved to WU and joined the then-new IDEaS, which focuses on where digital infrastructure meets the energy system. The institute tackles a wide variety of topics, from the fundamental question of how AI will drive up energy demand across different sectors to the physical infrastructure itself and its effect on the power system and the broader energy transition.
A different kind of demand
The grid has absorbed new demand several times before, so what’ s different about the AI wave?“ Scale,” Behnam states.“ Through
▲ Behnam Zakeri
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