Cutting Carbon

Episode 1:

Climate change: The everything, everywhere problem

Global climate change is real. We have a limited time to take action to limit the impact and to prevent massive long-term global changes. Conversation with Brian Gutknecht, GE’s Chief Marketing Officer.

Episode 2:

Carbon emissions: All needles, no haystacks

Carbon emissions are prevalent in multiple sectors, not just power. Industry, transportation and agriculture all contribute to global CO2 emissions. Guest: Neva Espinoza, Vice President, Energy Supply and Low-Carbon Resources at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

Episode 3:

Renewables need friends

Decarbonizing power is a team sport. Today, there are still a billion people in the world without electricity. By 2050 the world is expected to need ~42000 Terawatt Hours of electricity, adding about 400 TWh of additional power every year: twice as much electricity as California generates today. Can this all be done by renewables? We hope that the continued growth of Renewable power generation will lead to wind and solar being 50% of total electricity generation by 2050. But where will the other 50% come from? In this episode Brian and Jeff explore this paradox with Vic Abate, GE Chief Technology Officer and the CEO of  GE Research 

Episode 4:

Key terminology to measure the journey

What do terms like carbon neutral, carbon negative, zero carbon mean? What are the implications of various scope levels of emissions? What is carbon intensity? Want to know more? Jeff Goldmeer and Brian Gutknecht explain what these key terms mean and why it matters.

Episode 5:

Electricity, hold the carbon

We don't have to invent new technology to begin to combat climate change today. Gas-fired generation is flexible, affordable, reliable, and produces less than half CO2 of coal, while coal-to-gas switching represents a fast and effective win for emissions reduction. But what technology options exist for gas turbines to reduce carbon emissions.  Jeff and Brian talk about the use of hydrogen as a power generation fuel and the potential for carbon capture technology to be applied to power plants.

Episode 6:

Gas turbines are awesome

Did you know that a gas turbine sucks in enough air to fill a Goodyear blimp in ~10 seconds? Our guest Dr. Jacqueline O’Connor, Director of the Penn State Center for Gas Turbine Research, Education, and Outreach at The Pennsylvania State University, explains the main components of a gas turbine and how these amazing machines manage one of the most extreme environments that human engineers have developed.