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French electric utility outfit EDF is partnering with quantum computing firms Quandela and the quizzically-named Alice & Bob, alongside the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), to enhance energy consumption in quantum computing.

With the support of grant money from the public investment bank Bpifrance, the 6.1M initiative will also compare the energy requirements of quantum and classical high-performance computing systems.

The Energetic Optimisation of Quantum Circuits (OECQ) project will involve two phases. The first will compare the energy requirements of high-performance computing (HPC) systems with those of quantum computers.

The second will set its sights on curbing quantum computers energy consumption. Although quantum computers today consume significantly less energy than traditional supercomputers, they still need significant power, ranging from about 25 kW to 600 kWh daily, according to one estimate. Optimizing energy of the systems includes not only the quantum processing unit (QPU) itself but also ensuring the auxiliary technologies that power it are efficient.

The OECQ project arrives at an important time. As interest in AI builds, some Big Tech firms are eyeing nuclear energy to support burgeoning demand. Increasing demand for AI services is driving a substantive increases in power requirements for data centers, potentially surpassing the annual energy consumption of many small nations. By 2030, data centers could consume up to 9% of electricity in the U.S., more than double what is being used now, as Quartz noted.

The eventual commercialization of quantum computing could reshape the computational landscape. But it could presents a double-edged sword for energy consumption. On one hand, quantum computers promise to solve some problems exponentially faster (like factoring prime numbers) than classical computers, potentially curbing overall energy use for some applications. But on the other, they could enable entirely new classes of computationally intensive tasks, potentially driving overall energy demand even higher.

OECQ aims to optimize quantum computers energy use through a partnership-based approach:

The projects second phase will focus on concrete optimization strategies. This stage will include not only improving the efficiency of the quantum processing unit (QPU) itself but also minimizing the energy consumed by the cooling and control systems that support it.

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EDF, Alice & Bob, Quandela, and CNRS team up to enhance quantum computing efficiency - Research & Development World