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Welcome to the Smart and ZerO-Emission Energy Analytics and Research (SOAR) Lab at the University of Houston. This Lab is directed by Dr. Jian (Jason) Shi at the University of Houston. SOAR was founded in 2018. SOAR is a member of the Power Electronics, Microgrids & Subsea Electrical Systems Center (PEMSEC) at UH.
SOAR Lab is dedicated to creating energy solutions that are good for people, good for business, and good for the planet. Specifically, we aim at tackling four defining frontiers of our time: AI, Energy, Critical Minerals, and Climate Change, by advancing research and innovation at their intersection to deliver More Energy with Less Emissions.
Research Motivation:
Research Motivation:
Modern energy systems are being reshaped by three converging pressures:
AI is emerging as a powerful enabler, with the potential to unlock major gains in forecasting, grid operations, optimization, and decarbonization across the energy sector.
The rapid growth of AI and data centers is creating unprecedented electricity demand, fundamentally changing how we plan, operate, and modernize power systems in both the near and long term.
Clean-energy and digital infrastructure rely on global supplies of critical minerals, whose extraction, processing, and recycling determine both the pace and the sustainability of the energy transition.
These pressures cannot be addressed in isolation. Together, they define an energy landscape where power, data, and minerals are tightly interconnected.
Meeting this challenge requires optimizing energy systems to stay reliable, cost-effective, and equitable, while becoming climate-resilient, mineral-efficient, and AI-ready.
"AI is one of the biggest stories in the energy world today – but until now, policymakers and markets lacked the tools to fully understand the wide-ranging impacts." - Fatih Birol, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA)
"AI is one of the biggest stories in the energy world today – but until now, policymakers and markets lacked the tools to fully understand the wide-ranging impacts." - Fatih Birol, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA)
The growth of AI is far from carbon-neutral. Nor is it mineral-neutral:
The growth of AI is far from carbon-neutral. Nor is it mineral-neutral:
The rapid expansion of AI workloads is reshaping both the energy and materials landscapes
For example, Google’s GHG emissions have increased by 48% since 2019 due to energy-intensive AI and data center expansion.
At the same time, every new generation of AI chips requires more critical minerals, from copper and nickel to rare earth elements.
Yet if deployed strategically, AI could help reduce 3.2 to 5.4 billion tonnes of CO₂e annually by 2035 if deployed strategically across key sectors.
Without carbon-aware operation, clean-energy integration, and mineral-efficient design, AI risks accelerating the very climate and sustainability challenges it could help solve.
These rising AI energy demands are unfolding against the backdrop of record-breaking global temperatures and the highest energy-related emissions in human history:
These rising AI energy demands are unfolding against the backdrop of record-breaking global temperatures and the highest energy-related emissions in human history:
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has confirmed that 2024 is the warmest year on record, with the past ten years 2015-2024 are the ten warmest years on record [source: MWO].
Global energy activities contributed 37.8 Gt of CO₂ in 2024, hitting an all-time high and accounting for more than 70% of total greenhouse gas emissions. [source: IEA].
Mineral extraction and refining required for servers, batteries, power electronics, and renewable-energy technologies add additional upstream emissions that are rarely accounted for in AI or energy projections.
Energy is the backbone of modern life, powering industries, infrastructure, and now increasingly AI-driven digital systems. Yet it is also the largest source of emissions. Meeting emission goals while supporting a new wave of AI-powered innovation, and doing so without amplifying mineral dependency, makes this moment both unprecedented and pivotal in the entire energy history.
Energy and Climate Responsibility for Our Generation:
Energy and Climate Responsibility for Our Generation:
Ensuring energy security, affordability, accessibility, and sustainability is essential in today’s evolving landscape. Achieving deep decarbonization must be balanced with short-term strategies that keep energy reliable and affordable for households, communities, and rapidly expanding digital infrastructure.
Today, balance means more than integrating diverse energy sources. It means adapting to new classes of demand, including hyperscale data centers, while also navigating the material constraints of clean-energy technologies where the availability of critical minerals increasingly shapes cost, speed, and long-term sustainability.
Building the next generation of resilient energy systems demands innovations that are energy-efficient, climate-aligned, and mineral-aware.
Our research addresses this balance through three priorities:
Affordability & Abundance: ensuring stable, abundant, and equitable energy for households, communities, digital infrastructure, and mineral-intensive clean-energy technologies.
Security & Resilience: modernizing grids to withstand extreme weather, rapid load growth, and supply-chain vulnerabilities, including those tied to critical-mineral dependencies.
Sustainability & Climate Goals: reducing emissions while enabling economic and technological growth through clean power, efficient AI integration, and circular strategies that lower the resource footprint of energy and digital systems.
Energy Transition, AI Growth, and Energy Security Are Now Inseparable
Energy Transition, AI Growth, and Energy Security Are Now Inseparable
Fossil fuels still supply around 80% of the world’s primary energy, particularly where cost and reliability are non-negotiable. But the ground has shifted: AI is driving electricity demand faster than clean energy and supporting mineral supply chains can scale, and the gap is widening.
The next stage of the energy transition will be judged on delivery, not declarations:
Surging demand from AI, electrification, and industry can’t be met with incremental wind, solar, or gas projects.
Energy Transition will not succeed without secure, sustainable supplies of the critical minerals that underpin batteries, power electronics, GPUs, transmission hardware, and long-duration storage.
What’s required is large-scale deployment of clean generation, firm low-carbon power, long-duration storage, flexible demand, resilient mineral supply chains, new transmission, and digitally coordinated grid operations, built as an integrated system, not a patchwork.
Drifting is no longer an option: the infrastructure decisions made now will determine whether AI-era energy systems entrench emissions and material, or enable resilience, accessibility, affordability, and decarbonization at scale.
Drifting is no longer an option: the infrastructure decisions made now will determine whether AI-era energy systems entrench emissions and material, or enable resilience, accessibility, affordability, and decarbonization at scale.
"We need an all-of-the-above strategy for the 21st century that develops every source of American-made energy."- President Barack Obama.
"We need an all-of-the-above strategy for the 21st century that develops every source of American-made energy."- President Barack Obama.
The Real Challenge Is Balancing Climate Goals, Energy Affordability, and Rising Digital Demand
The Real Challenge Is Balancing Climate Goals, Energy Affordability, and Rising Digital Demand
Climate ambition must align with energy equity, mineral constraints, and digital growth: Decarbonization and access to critical minerals are uneven, and AI growth could deepen the divide.
Rising costs can stall both clean energy and AI deployment: Transition costs + supply-chain pressures+ AI demand can drive price spikes, especially for average ratepayers.
Resilience, efficiency, and decarbonization must be engineered together: Grids must handle AI load, storage, vulnerabilities in global mineral supply chains, and extreme weather simultaneously.
"What is becoming clear is that the shift in the global energy system will not unfold in a linear or steady manner. Rather, it will be multidimensional—unfolding differently in different parts of the world, at different rates, with different mixes of fuels and technologies, subject to competing priorities and shaped by governments and companies establishing their own paths." - The Troubled Energy Transition by Daniel Yergin, Peter Orszag, and Atul Arya [source].
"What is becoming clear is that the shift in the global energy system will not unfold in a linear or steady manner. Rather, it will be multidimensional—unfolding differently in different parts of the world, at different rates, with different mixes of fuels and technologies, subject to competing priorities and shaped by governments and companies establishing their own paths." - The Troubled Energy Transition by Daniel Yergin, Peter Orszag, and Atul Arya [source].
Houston: The Energy and AI Infrastructure Capital of the Future
Houston: The Energy and AI Infrastructure Capital of the Future
Houston is no longer just the center of the global energy industry. It is becoming the testing ground for how AI, energy dominance, and decarbonization converge. The region is home to some of the fastest-growing data center and AI infrastructure buildouts in the country, alongside one of the most mature energy innovation ecosystems in the world.
The University of Houston, and SOAR Lab within it, are strategically positioned to shape this transformation: we contribute to the nation’s emerging “Energy University” mission by leading research in AI-ready, climate-resilient energy systems.
"The Lone Star State is showing the world how to power a clean tomorrow...Energy transition breakthroughs will come from the Silicon Valley of Energy, Houston" - Bill Gates, CeraWeek 2024.
"The Lone Star State is showing the world how to power a clean tomorrow...Energy transition breakthroughs will come from the Silicon Valley of Energy, Houston" - Bill Gates, CeraWeek 2024.
Our Mission Statement
Our Mission Statement
Located in UH, the mission of SOAR Lab is to make energy good for people, good for business, and good for the planet. We develop AI- and optimization-driven solutions that reinforce energy security, affordability, and resilience while accelerating the transition to low-carbon and AI-integrated power systems.
Our Objectives:
Our Objectives:
SOAR Lab accelerates innovation across technology, policy, and society to build the energy systems of the AI era that delivers more energy with less emissions. Our work is anchored in four core objectives:
Train the next-generation workforce for an AI-enabled energy future.
Expand access to affordable, reliable, and efficient energy for all communities.
Design human-centered energy technologies for tomorrow’s infrastructure.
Inform policy with evidence-based insight and real-world impact.
If you are passionate about what we do - contact us via: jshi14 [at] uh.edu or jshi23 [dot] uh [at] gmail.com (preferable).
YOU can make a difference in our climate!
4730 Calhoun Road, Room 304A, Houston, TX, 77204
713-743-6976 (Office)
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