ENI (an Italian energy corporation), a company that focuses on supporting a just energy transition to develop economically sustainable solutions to the challenge of climate change, and PASQAL, a quantum computing company that works on neutral atoms in 2D and 3D arrays to solve real-world problems, have announced a collaboration to develop next-generation HPC solutions for the energy sector using quantum computing.
Quantum computing is a rapidly developing technology that uses quantum mechanics laws to address issues that are too complicated for traditional computers. The application of quantum technology to the energy industry is an innovative technology that has the potential to hasten the energy transition.
PASQAL is developing unique and proprietary quantum algorithms to improve existing HPC workflows for a wide range of energy applications currently being researched by ENI, which currently invests in digital technologies to increase operational efficiency and support net GHG emission reductions, with the goal of offering fully decarbonized products and services by 2050.
ENI operates one of the world’s most powerful privately-owned supercomputers, which is housed in ENI’s Green Data Centre in Ferrera Erbognone (Italy), one of the most sustainable and energy-efficient data centers in the world, and the company applies computational methods to a wide range of applications, including numerical simulation of basins and reservoirs, magnetic fusion, and renewable energies, among many others. ENI will be able to advance these and other fields of research and unlock new possibilities by utilizing PASQAL’s patented algorithms.
Digital and High-Performance Computing is the driver to make us faster, more efficient and more responsible. Our HPC system is a vital tool to explore the energy of the future, PASQAL’s quantum computers will allow us to complement our conventional HPC workflows in areas such as optimization and machine learning and accelerate our research to create new solutions to the most pressing issues in the energy industry.
Dario Pagani, Eni’s Head of Digital & High Performance Computing
The R&D partnership follows ENI’s 2021 series A investment in PASQAL via Eni Next, Eni’s corporate venture capital entity focused on investing in high-growth start-ups to accelerate the energy transition to a zero-carbon future. PASQAL plans to use the funds to produce its current 100-qubit commercial quantum computer and to create next-generation devices.
Our collaboration with Eni will drive the energy industry’s most critical research forward. We’re honored to be selected by Eni, a world energy leader, to leverage quantum computing to address a wide range of challenges in the energy transition. We look forward to working with Eni to explore new applications and define new use cases for our transformative technology.
Georges-Olivier Reymond, CEO of PASQAL.