A diverse energy portfolio is the answer to this centurys energy Trilemma, says Alstom at the World Energy Congress 2013

Alstom is participating in the World Energy Congress (WEC) held this year in Daegu, South Korea, between 13 and 17 October 2013. As a sponsor of the event, Alstom is represented by the President of the Thermal Sector, Philippe Cochet and Giles Dickson, Vice President of Environmental Policies & Global Advocacy. 

Held every three years, the WEC, organised by the World Energy Council, a non-profit energy organisation with Member Committees in 92 Countries, aims at promoting sustainable supply and use of energy for greatest benefit of all people. 

This year, the main energy players will consider how to respond today to global challenges under the theme, Securing Tomorrows Energy Today. In this context, Alstom will contribute to the debate in several ways: Philippe Cochet will be speaking at a plenary session Energy and Climate Scenarios: The Business Implications and Giles Dickson will be taking part in a panel on World coal outlook: Innovations for tomorrows energy

As a leader in driving sustainable energy policies, Alstoms main messages during the World Energy Congress are: 

• A diversified portfolio approach is the only sound business and policy strategy able to address any Energy & Climate scenario. Excluding base fuels or technologies soon derails the objectives of the best intended policies. Coal utilisation is increasing at the rate of 1.9% per year (WEO 2012 Current Policies CAAGR 2010-2035) while nuclear remains the only fully dispatchable CO2 free thermal energy we have available and it can be made to operate safely. The fact is: We need all the renewable and thermal solutions we have, including Carbon Capture and Storage, to tackle this centurys energy Trilemma.

• Alstom continues to increase its Research and Development (R&D) spend to develop various new technologies across all fuels. At over 700 million, R&D spend was up 8% versus FY 2011/12. Progress is seen across all fuels including high efficiency gas and steam turbines, offshore wind and High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) connections.  And we look to governments to play their part in supporting the demonstration and early deployment of new technologies. This includes support for CCS, where deployment at large-scale has been far too slow, mainly due to the lack of governmental support. CCS is the only solution for most industrial emissions of CO2 and can solve close to 20% (IEA WEO 2012) of the global climate problem: it is now time to embrace it and foster its deployment world-wide.

• Energy is the sector with one of the longest economic cycles. It needs policy certainty and visibility. Government needs to give us stable long-term energy and climate policies, a meaningful carbon price and market and financial stability. Most importantly, we should not just wait for the outcomes of the global climate change negotiations; countries need to take action now.

Over recent years Alstom has increasingly invested in carbon-free energy technologies and portfolio-wide solutions for meeting its customers energy needs in an environmentally responsible manner. We measure the CO2 savings generated by the technology weve installed since 2002, using a verified methodology (PWC) and are now exceeding 200 million tonnes of annual CO2 emissions avoided, close to half of the annual emissions of France. Two-thirds of this is achieved by the operation of state-of-the-art thermal power plants.

Press Contacts 

Sapna Lalwani (Alstom Thermal Power)
sapna.lalwani@power.alstom.com 

Julie Khoo (Alstom South East Asia)
julie.khoo@power.alstom.com

• Alstom CO2 savings