Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, recently announced that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will deploy its data-driven sustainability solution – Energy Expert – to help measure and analyze the electricity consumption at the competition venues of the forthcoming Olympic Games Paris 2024 (“Paris 2024”). By migrating the intelligence related to the power consumption and demand of the competition venues to the cloud-based platform for the first time, the solution aims to enable more accurate analysis and better-informed power consumption planning for future Olympic Games.
The deployment of Energy Expert will be applied to all 35 competition venues during Paris 2024. With this solution, the IOC will be able to consolidate all energy-related data during the Olympics and Paralympics – such as electricity consumption, power demand contingency, venue capacity, competition-related information, and onsite weather conditions – into one easy-to-understand dashboard for a user-friendly experience.
Based on the integrated cloud-based intelligence and thanks to the deep-learning based AI models from Alibaba Cloud, Energy Expert aims to provide more accurate analysis to produce venue-specific forecasts and recommendations such as power demand optimization to minimize power wastage.
“Sustainability is one of the three pillars of the Olympic Agenda 2020+5 alongside credibility and youth. With Energy Expert, we can now forecast our energy-related impacts well into the future and accurately measure our progress,” said llario Corna, Chief Information and Technology Officer at the International Olympic Committee (IOC). “Electricity consumption is a large contributor to the Olympic Games’ carbon emissions. The data-driven insight produced by Energy Expert will help us learn from each Games edition, and apply that knowledge intelligently to make future events even more energy efficient.”
In addition, real-time electricity consumption at the level of operational spaces on-venue will be gathered from a selection of competition venues with 100 smart electric meters installed to gather more comprehensive datasets. For example, real-time electricity consumption from various operational spaces on-venue, including the playing fields, broadcast and media working areas, technology operational spaces and specific equipment, food and beverage equipment, and a host of other temporary operational areas and equipment. Datasets collected will vary, taking into account temperature conditions and real-time occupancy of the areas at different times of the day. Collection of these detailed datasets will enable a more accurate context for Organizing Committees for the Olympic Games (OCOGs) when referring to the energy consumption data from the Paris Games.
To support OCOGs in undertaking a more comprehensive analysis of Games energy consumption trends, electricity data from previous Games, including the Olympic Games London 2012, Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, and Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, will also be available for analysis within Energy Expert.
“Energy Expert will further prove its value in the most high-profile and challenging arena of all; the fast-paced and highly competitive world of international sports. The insights Energy Expert delivers, will form part of the solution to assist the IOC and future Games to be more sustainable,” said William Xiong, Vice President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence and General Manager for International Industry Solutions.
Outside the competition venues, Energy Expert’s AI-driven recommendations have been applied to help Alibaba optimize energy consumption and minimize carbon emissions at its temporary exhibition venues during Paris 2024. For example, at the Alibaba Wonder Avenue in the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, sustainable wooden materials and recyclable steel will be used for the main structure of the venue in order to cut the carbon footprint. The semi-open design of the space has also contributed to optimizing energy consumption and minimizing carbon emissions, primarily by leveraging the natural lighting and ventilation.
Introduced in June 2022, Energy Expert’s first application at a sports event was in 2023 at the first Olympic Esports Week in Singapore. The solution was trialed for the purpose of measuring and analyzing carbon emissions from temporary constructions built to host the Olympic Esports Week, to generate data-driven insights on the choice of materials and equipment used at the event. A series of metrics – including the impact of energy consumption, waste management, signage, and decoration – were assessed, enabling the comparison of the relative impacts of several types of materials and equipment used at the event.
Beyond the sports environments and applications, Energy Expert also helps over 3,000 customers worldwide measure, analyze, and manage the carbon emissions of their business activities and products. The solution also provides actionable insights and energy-saving recommendations to help customers accelerate their sustainability journeys.