GE lost billions by 'misjudging' renewables: report

The Cleveland-based research group said GE and

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its principal shareholders misjudged the falling price of renewables as the world transitions to cleaner energy and suffered from a collapse of the gas turbine and thermal power construction markets.

"GE assumed wrongly that demand for natural gas and coal would continue to track global economic growth," they said, accusing GE of "an epic failure of corporate governance."

The 2015 Paris accord enjoins nations to work towards limiting global temperature rises to "well below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 Farenheit) and to a harder cap of 1.5C if possible.

To do so, governments must commit to curbing greenhouse gas emissions—the leading source of which is burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal for power.

As the price of renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar fell in recent years, the IEEFA said GE has been left with billions in stranded fossil fuel-related assets as cheaper alternatives curbed industry demand for coal and gas.

The company also failed to account for increasing energy efficiency, driven largely by renewables, which decoupled energy demand from global economic activity, according to the report.

https://phys.org/news/2019-06-ge-lost-billions-misjudging-renewables.html