Energy Innovation and Emerging Technologies: Data Centers, AI, Quantum Computing and Space

Abstract: Emerging technologies are causing staggering disruptions in our energy systems with important implications for climate change. We currently have a window of opportunity to shape how this critical nexus develops. AI, quantum computing, and the growing private-sector space industry are changing how energy systems around the world interact with data and function, while data centers powering AI, cryptocurrency and other digital assets, and cloud computing are driving global energy demand and influencing generation. Technology companies, private equity, infrastructure and sovereign wealth funds, and other key investors are channeling capital into data centers, emerging technology, and energy generation, including nuclear, geothermal, hydrogen, and early-stage fusion pilots. Energy geopolitics are shifting, with the United States increasingly diverging from Canada, China, and the European Union in its approaches to AI, data centers, and renewable energy, while major producers like Saudi Arabia expand renewables. This presentation will explore emerging technologies’ role in energy transition, with a focus on opportunities and key regulatory issues around powering data centers, integrating emerging technologies, and frontiers in energy and space.

Bio: Hari M. Osofsky is the Myra and James Bradwell Professor of Law, Professor of Environmental Policy and Culture (courtesy), Director of the Energy Innovation Lab, and Director of the Rule of Law Global Academic Partnership at Northwestern University. Professor Osofsky previously served as Dean of Northwestern Pritzker School of Law; Dean, Distinguished Professor of Law, Professor of International Affairs, and Professor of Geography at Penn State Law and the Penn State School of International Affairs; Robins Kaplan Professor of Law, Founding Director of the Energy Transition Lab, and Director of the Joint Degree Program in Law, Science & Technology at the University of Minnesota; and on the faculties at Washington and Lee University School of Law, the University of Oregon School of Law, and Whittier Law School. Professor Osofsky received a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Oregon and a J.D. from Yale Law School.