Bolze at CERA: Driving toward a clean energy economy

Each year, senior energy policymakers and industry leaders from over 55 countries convene at CERAWeek — which concludes today — to gain insights into the future of energy. Yesterday, Steve Bolze, President and CEO of GE Power & Water, was part of the Climate Change, Environment and Technology panel at CERA — which is the acronym for the sponsor, IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates. Stressing the need for strong policies to drive clean energy markets, Steve told the group there’s a clean energy technology economy that’s emerging — and that countries that move quickly to seize the opportunities will reap the rewards. In the video interview immediately below, Steve discusses the new economic environment.

The clean energy economy: Click on the image above to watch a video interview with Steve on CERA’s website.

As Steve says, right now China and the EU are leading the global race, because they have government policies and standards in place to promote the adoption of clean energy technology. These countries, he explained, have aligned policy with innovation to drive clean energy on a large scale — which in turn is helping to create jobs. The reason? Because strong policy targets help to signal the market that long-term investments in clean energy technologies are sound investments.

Steve — who also called in from the conference in Houston last night — also provides a recap of the meeting in the audio clip below:

The focus on clean energy is certainly timely — and a subject that lands GE on the coveted cover of the April issue of Popular Science magazine.

A gutsy view: Click on the cover image to see the two-page spread on GE’s next-generation offshore wind turbine that’s featured in the “How it Works” story in Popular Science. Photos courtesy of Popular Science

The magazine split open “13 amazing machines” to explain the technologies, which also include an electric bullet, a robotic moon rocket, “a drill to the center of the earth,” and GE’s new offshore wind turbine. The “gearless turbine” can “slash the need for costly repairs at sea,” the writers note. The technology is also combined with blades that are 176-feet long — which is over half the length of an American football field and about “40 percent longer than the average.”

Click on the cover image to see the detailed cutaways and explanations. You can read about the other 12 “amazing machines” when the issue hits newsstands on March 16.

Learn more in these GE Reports stories and videos:
* “GE’s offshore technology expands with ScanWind buy”
* “Blade runners: How 134-foot wind blades are born”
* “Blade runners: GE’s wind blade breezes into town”
* “Took a whole lot of trying, just to get up that hill”

* “Renewables study: 274,000 jobs can be added”
* “Europe’s largest onshore wind farm expands with GE”
* “Builder of largest US wind farm inks $1.4B turbine deal”
* “GE’s giant wind turbines set to debut in Sweden”
* Watch Steve Bolze’s talk at the “From Used to Useful” water summit
* Read more GE Reports stories about our energy business
* Read more renewable energy stories on GE Reports