In line with its continued commitment to support urgent climate actions, GE has highlighted the need for scalability and diverse solutions to accelerate the energy transition. 

 

GE’s call came at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum that took place alongside Expo 2020 in Dubai in conjunction with the 2022 World Government Summit. 

 

GE’s leadership contributed to critical discussions with senior government officials, energy experts, and industry executives during the Forum. The dialogues focused on meeting short-term energy demand, while not losing sight of crucial net-zero goals and examined the geopolitical, energy market, and climate crises shaping the energy system.

 

Committed to decarbonisation

Speaking on a panel regarding meeting the hydrogen supply challenge, GE’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Roger Martella, said: “As a company that generates one-third of the world’s electricity with our equipment, we are committed to decarbonising the energy sector while ensuring that all people have access to reliable, sustainable, and affordable energy, particularly the roughly one billion people without access to energy. 

 

“Working with our customers and partners, we are innovating breakthrough technologies to drive deeper decarbonisation of the energy sector today and in the future. We have 8 million hours operating with low carbon intensity fuels already in more than 100 machines around the world and are developing multiple pathways for low-to-zero carbon gas technologies in the future.”

 

Scaling up the supply of low-carbon hydrogen of different colours will be critical in enabling the rapid uptake of hydrogen for power generation, transportation, and other purposes. 

 

Addressing the energy trilemma

Abdurrahman Khalidi, Chief Technology Officer, GE Gas Power Europe, Middle East, and Africa, speaking during the panel on securing the energy transition – resilience and reliability in the face of evolving threats, said: “Managing the energy transition is not as simple as solving for sustainability. We must address the energy trilemma to achieve reliable, affordable, and sustainable power, while energy demand continues to rise. For that, we need to act with speed today to meet the climate challenge with the technologies that are already available, while continuing to invest in the technologies of the future in parallel. 

 

“We need to do both simultaneously to meet the very challenging goals of achieving carbon reduction targets in the near term and net-zero goals further down the road. The Gulf region can play a strong role in helping the world meet its decarbonisation goals by investing in the production of low carbon hydrogen and supplying this valuable fuel globally.”

 

A recent white paper by GE, Pathways to Faster Decarbonisation in the GCC’s Power Sector, states peak electricity demand in the GCC is expected to increase by up to 7.5% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), driven by factors such as population, industrial, and infrastructure growth, to over 250 GW in 2030. 

 

Need for combined cycle

GE estimates that there is up to 57 GW of generation capacity in simple cycle mode across the GCC at present. Converting just 25% of this capacity to combined cycle would avoid as much as 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually, or the equivalent of taking 7.5 million cars off the roads. These conversions can take as little as 16 months and increase a plant’s power output by as much as 50% - without an increase in emissions.

 

Over the years, GE has made significant investments and collaborated with its customers and partners in the region to accelerate the transition towards a cleaner energy future. 

 

These efforts include bringing its H-class gas turbines that have set world records for combined cycle efficiency levels to the Gulf region; implementing upgrade technologies to enhance the operational performance of existing, installed power generation assets; announcing joint initiatives to develop roadmaps to reduce carbon emissions from gas turbines installed in the oil and gas and aluminium sectors in support of the UAE Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative; and setting up service, tooling, monitoring and diagnostics, and research and development facilities such as the Jebel Ali Service Centre in Dubai, GE Manufacturing & Technology Centre campus in Dammam, and GE Kuwait Technology Centre.-- TradeArabia News Service