Cutting Carbon

Ep. 3: Renewables Need Friends

Episode Summary

Decarbonizing power is a team sport. Today, there is nearly a billion people in the world without electricity. A tremendous amount of power is needed to electrify the world, and it grows about a 1.5% growth rate yearly. By 2050 the world will need approximately 42,000 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity, adding about 400 TWh of additional power every year: twice as much electricity as California generates today.

Episode Notes

Decarbonizing power is a team sport. Today, there is still a billion people in the world without electricity. A tremendous amount of power is needed to electrify the world, and it grows about a 1.5% growth rate yearly. By 2050 the world will need approximately 42,000 terawatt hours (TWh) 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? Renewables over the last 20 years have seen a massive growth. This continued growth could 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's Chief Technology Officer and the CEO of GE Research.

 

>Meet Vic Abate bio: https://www.ge.com/research/people/vic-abate

>GE Global Research website: https://www.ge.com/research/

 

 

 

For more information, please visit www.ge.com/power/gas and follow GE’s Power business on Twitter (https://twitter.com/GE_Power) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/gepower/). You can learn more about the Cutting Carbon podcast here: https://www.ge.com/power/future-of-energy/cutting-carbon-podcast?gecid=DECARB_3p_Pod_Networks_Season1

 

If you have questions, email us at cutting.carbon@ge.com.