The GE Brief: September 14, 2021
THE INS AND OUTS OF THE ENERGY TRANSITION
The renewable energy industry has powered ahead over the past 18 months, despite the pandemic. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) reports that renewable energy capacity grew by nearly 50% in 2020 over the previous year, with solar and wind leading the way. But the path to a decarbonized world will require much more than solar and wind installations, and few people know this better than Jérôme Pécresse, president and CEO of GE Renewable Energy. Pécresse published a LinkedIn post last week with insights on the state of the industry.
Transitional thinking: Pécresse’s unit not only makes onshore and offshore wind turbines, grid equipment, hydropower storage and battery hybrid systems; it also helps develop software that makes these systems work together. On LinkedIn, he wrote about the energy transition, the technology behind it and how we can lower the cost of renewables. “When you flip the light switch, the light must come on regardless of its power source, because behind the scenes, a modern, reliable and resilient grid is in operation,” he said.
For a look at the technologies GE engineers are working on, click here.
A FRESH IDEA
Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest producer of desalinated water, processing enough to fill 2,000 Olympic-size swimming pools every day. But the process also accounts for 20% of energy use in a nation that produces nearly all of its power from oil and gas. A major expansion project at the Yanbu-4 desalination plant aims to change that: Beginning in 2023, it will become Saudi Arabia’s first integrated, seawater-based reverse osmosis project to use renewable energy.
Here comes the sun: Yanbu-4, on the Red Sea coast, will use its own 20-megawatt solar farm to supplement the electricity that it draws from the grid. This will allow the plant to produce an additional 450,000 cubic meters of potable water each day. GE’s Grid Solutions unit will build the electrical substation that acts as the nerve center for Yanbu-4, stepping down the voltage from the grid. Saudi Arabia has ambitious plans for the 4,000 hours of sun that shines on the Red Sea coast: The kingdom expects to add 41 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2032.
Learn more about Yanbu-4 here.
FAIR WIND
On Monday, GE Renewable Energy received the official planning approval for its new wind turbine blade factory in Teesside, England. The plant will make the world’s longest wind turbine blades manufactured to date. Measuring 107 meters from tip to root, the blades will spin GE’s Haliade-X, the most powerful offshore wind turbine ever built.
Great expectations: The approval from the local planning authorities is the first major milestone in the lead-up to the construction of the factory, which will supply blades to the Dogger Bank offshore wind farm, expected to be the world’s largest offshore wind farm, with a planned installed generation capacity of 3.6 gigawatts when it is completed in 2026.
Read more here about the planned Teesside plant.
CLEEN ENGINES
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded more than $100 million to a group of companies including GE Aviation “to help develop technologies that reduce fuel use, emissions and noise. The award is part of a series of steps President Biden is taking to coordinate leadership and innovation across the federal government, aircraft manufacturers, airlines, fuel producers and more to position American aviation to soar towards net zero emissions by 2050,” the FAA said. The award is the third phase of the FAA’s Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions and Noise (CLEEN) program, launched in 2010.
Time to RISE: In June, CFM International, a 50-50 joint company between GE and Safran Aircraft Engines, announced the launch of the Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines (RISE) Program to demonstrate advanced technologies for the next generation of engines that will use 20% less fuel and produce 20% fewer CO2 emissions than the most efficient jet engines built today. Engineers at GE Aviation and GE Research are also working on hybrid-electric flight propulsion and sustainable aviation fuels and pursuing other research to help decarbonize the industry.
Find out more about the RISE Program here, and about GE’s latest aviation technologies here.
— QUOTE OF THE DAY —
“We are seeing every week examples of the dramatic impact of global warming on the planet and our lives. It is easy to get up in the morning to do what we do as I believe that renewable energy is one of the best industries to be in today and one where there is still a huge innovation potential ahead.”
— Jérôme Pécresse, president and CEO of GE Renewable Energy
Quote: GE Reports. Images: GE Renewable Energy, Teesworks, CFM International.