AI can tell which buildings are energy efficient from the outside

AI can use images from Google Street View and satellites to estimate building energy efficiency across entire cities. That could guide investments in reducing energy waste and fighting climate change

By Jeremy Hsu

Artificial intelligence can determine whether a building is energy efficient by analysing existing data. The technology could be used to get a broad picture of the energy efficiency of buildings in different countries.

Kevin Mayer at Stanford University in California and his colleagues trained and tested an AI on remote-sensing and public data for almost 40,000 buildings in the UK. This included Google Street View images, aerial images and satellite-based measurements of building heat loss, …