Microsoft is tackling one of the biggest hurdles in clean energy deployment: the time-consuming permitting process. Since permitting delays can stretch into years or even decades, especially for nuclear installations, this bottleneck directly slows down climate solutions.

The breakthrough began at a Microsoft hackathon, where a team explored how generative AI could help. Soon they had built a system that integrates Azure OpenAI and Kernel Memory to draft permitting documents in just minutes, a task that traditionally takes months or years. That shift alone has boosted productivity by 25 to 75 percent across energy applications.

The solution stands on three pillars. First, AI helps automatically generate accurate permit drafts using historical and project-specific data. Second, a Copilot interface lets permitting professionals access regulatory datasets via natural-language queries while staying securely within their Azure environment. Third, a pre-submission review flags missing information before filings are submitted, reducing regulatory delays.

Initially aimed at nuclear projects, the initiative is already expanding into renewables, mining, and offshore wind. It is now part of Microsoft’s MCAPS Energy and Resources division, and it is gaining support across leadership, underscoring that the project is about real impact, not just experimentation.

More recently, Microsoft has joined forces with Idaho National Laboratory to apply AI to speed up U.S. nuclear licensing by generating complex engineering and safety reports. These AI-generated drafts, trained on historical data, help cut what used to take months into a much faster process, though experts still oversee the final output.