UK Researchers Granted £6M to Reduce AI Energy Consumption
Written by Nicole Cappella Wed 7 May 2025
A landmark £6 million ($8 million) research programme led by Queen Mary University of London is set to revolutionise the data centre industry, drastically reducing energy consumption of artificial intelligence (AI) data centres.
The NEED2D (Enabling Net Zero and the AI Revolution with Ultra-Low Energy 2D Materials and Devices) initiative will produce ultra-low-energy, atomically-thin semiconductors with the capability of cutting energy usage by over 90%.
The programme pulls together leading researchers from Queen Mary University, the University of Nottingham, and the University of Glasgow, and is funded by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). More than 20 research and manufacturing partners are offering an additional £2 million ($2.6 million), bringing the total funding for the project to £8 million ($10.6 million).
NEED2D is focused on the idea of replacing traditional silicon-based electronics with cutting-edge two-dimensional (2D) materials like graphene. These 2D materials, a single atom in thickness, are far more efficient than silicon when scaled down to two dimensions. Because electrons move much faster in these new materials than in silicon, ultra-low-power computing is enabled, and heat waste is reduced.
2D materials are also ideally suited for miniaturisation, 3D stacking, and new computing architectures, including neomorphic systems and quantum computing.
Tackling AI’s Power Demand at the Source
Sir Colin Humphreys, Professor of Materials Science at Queen Mary University and project lead, said governments around the world are spending billions building wind, solar, nuclear and gas power stations to meet the huge energy demands of AI data centres. Humphreys added that their approach is to tackle the problem at the source: by reducing the power these centres consume in the first place.
“To do this, we will use the latest new materials, called two-dimensional materials, which are atomically thin. This will save over 90% of the energy required by data centres and computers, reduce the cost of electricity, and help to enable Net Zero.”
AI data centres are one of the most rapidly increasing energy users globally. In the UK alone, data centre electricity use is projected to increase sixfold by 2034, accounting for 30% of the UK’s total power consumption. This is a trend that not only threatens climate goals but also imposes enormous economic burdens.
“2D semiconductors behave in a fundamentally different way from their bulk (3D) counterparts, and their unique electronic properties can support entirely new effects at the atomic scale. We will advance the precise engineering of 2D semiconductors, pushing the limits of what we can create, probe and exploit,” said Amalia Patanè, Professor of Physics at the University of Nottingham and deputy project lead.
Written by Nicole Cappella Wed 7 May 2025