Atlanta, GA - August 17, 2023 –GE Vernova’s Gas Po
In 1941, the United States government asked GE to develop the first American jet engine. Allied defense, industrial collaboration, technological advancement, and economic growth were at stake. GE delivered the very next year.
Now, more than 80 years later, GE Aerospace finds itself at the cusp of another era-defining moment. With climate change impacting communities and economies around the world, the aerospace industry is in the midst of what feels to some like a seismic shift.
Next week at Le Bourget Airport, north of Paris, more than 300,000 people are expected to descend — many of them literally, from the skies — for the oldest and most important gathering of the aviation industry. It’s a tradition going back to 1909, when a Blériot type XI monoplane captivated showgoers after having completed, just months before, the first successful flight across the English Channel.
Currently showing on Petter Hörnfeldt’s popular aviation-themed YouTube channel is a video entitled “Revolutionizing Flight! The Amazing Potential of the CFM RISE Engine.” On screen, Hörnfeldt wears a black T-shirt sporting the “Mentour Crew” logo — a reference to Mentour Pilot, the name of his channel and its sister channel, Mentour Now!
Ahmad Wakaa’s journey from extracting fossil fuels to fighting climate change was more difficult than just changing his professional focus. Born in Qamishli, Syria, to a large extended family, he earned a petroleum engineering degree and went to work in the oil fields around his hometown. Forced to flee the Syrian civil war, Wakaa made a dangerous escape, crossing nearly ten international borders to find safety. Granted asylum in Norway, he now helps companies test carbon capture technologies at a facility that looks like a labyrinth of pipes, tanks, and gauges.
Few people know more about the electrons they use to power their day-to-day life than Michael Knez. Often up before dawn when all else is silent, Knez says he can hear the hum coming from Australia’s Tallawarra Power Station, four kilometers away across Lake Illawarra from his house, which Knez helped build some 14 years ago. A massive combined-cycle gas-fired power plant, Tallawarra produces enough electricity to supply the equivalent of roughly 200,000 Australian homes with substantially lower carbon emissions than the coal-fired plant it replaced.
Last May, four countries in Northern Europe declared their intention to install at least 65 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy in the wind-rich North Sea by 2030, up from the current 20 GW. It’s another sign that the offshore wind industry is set for an unprecedented boom as the technology improves and countries rush to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and speed the journey to net zero.
In 2022, the number of air travelers worldwide rebounded by 47% over the previous year, and in 2023 the U.N. projects that it will return to pre-pandemic levels, if not higher. As the industry strives to reduce its carbon footprint, the U.S. government has stepped in to help accelerate the process by encouraging the continued development of one piece of the puzzle: sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
In the ongoing effort to reduce emissions, retire coal, and support the growth of renewables, countries around the world continue to choose high-efficiency natural gas to complement renewables and smooth the path to lower emissions. Take Greece, for example, a country that’s impressively built out wind and solar in recent years but still uses a good deal of coal and even oil in power generation.
For decades, the blazing plumes of oil-site gas flares have featured in fossil-fuel news reports and dystopias like Blade Runner — emblems of the massive economic waste and carbon emissions most assume are just costs of doing business.
