Global Electric Power Sector: Engaging with Environmental Issues

Power & Energy Society

Global Electric Power Sector: Engaging with Environmental Issues

Speaker: Saifur Rahman, PhD, Joseph Loring Professor & Director, Advanced Research Institute, Virginia Tech

Location: Online only via MS Teams; no in-person gathering

China, US, India, Japan and Russia are the top five countries in terms of electricity generation capacity. Between them they had a total capacity of 3,650 million kW in 2016. In terms of fuel sources for electricity coal, natural gas, hydro, nuclear, renewables and oil provided 38.3%, 22.9%, 16.3%, 10.2%, 9% and 3.3% respectively in 2017. This means almost two-thirds of the global electricity production came from fossil fuels in that year. This is reflected in about 10 billion tons of CO2 from electricity generation or about a third of the global production. However, this mix is expected to change significantly in the next 10 years. By 2030 installed power generation capacities from wind, solar PV, hydro power, nuclear and thermal are going to reach 540 GW, 420 GW, 530 GW, 160 GW and 1200 GW respectively. The top five CO2 emitting countries are: China, United States, India, Russian Federation and Japan each producing between nine and one billion metric tons of CO2 in 2016. However, CO2 is not the only concern against global warming. The Global Warming Potentials (GWP) of greenhouse gases are as follows: CO2 (1), Methane (28), Hydro fluorocarbons (138), Nitrous oxide (265), Per fluorocarbons (6,630) and Sulphur hexafluoride (23,500). So, the bottom line is: Efforts in the electric power sector to replace fossil fuel with renewables and nuclear will help. But if emission from the transportation sector continues to rise, the drop in power sector contributions will not be enough. Large scale Electric Vehicle deployment will help, but question remains – how will the EV be powered.
Biography:

Professor Saifur Rahman is the founding director of the Advanced Research Institute at Virginia Tech, USA where he is the Joseph R. Loring professor of electrical and computer engineering. He also directs the Center for Energy and the Global Environment He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE and an IEEE Millennium Medal winner. He was the President of the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) for 2018 and 2019. He was also the founding editor-in-chief of both the IEEE Electrification Magazine and the IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy. In 2006 he served on the IEEE Board of Directors as the vice president for publications. He is member-at-large of the IEEE-USA Energy Policy Committee. He is a distinguished lecturer for the IEEE Power & Energy Society and has lectured on renewable energy, energy efficiency, smart grid, electric power system operation and planning, etc. in over 30 countries. He served as the chair of the US National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for International Science and Engineering from 2010 to 2013. He has conducted several energy efficiency related projects for Duke Energy, Tokyo Electric Power Company, the US Department of Defense, the State of Virginia and the US Department of Energy.

TEAMS details:

Join Microsoft Teams Meeting, Tuesday, October 20th, 2020; MS Teams starts at 6:30pm

Free and Open to the Public; RSVP is appreciated

Visit the IEEE PES Boston Chapter website for further details – http://www.ieeepesboston.org/

If you have any questions, please contact Amsa (781-446-3676) or Subhadarshi (781-907-2483)