There is now growing realization by the World Bank, International Energy Agency, and other research and government organizations, as well as the media (NYT, WSJ), that energy transition will require significant increases in mining for and processing of critical materials. These activities themselves also contribute to GHG emissions, and result in land and water use and pollution, and loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The manufacturing and transportation of new equipment and construction of new facilities add to these impacts. We study these issues using a comprehensive life-cycle analysis that focuses on the global supply chains from raw material extraction to end-of-life of generation assets. The analysis will track impacts over time for a 30-year operation period, including replenishment of infrastructure, using the traditional LCA metric of per-MWh impacts. These issues map directly onto ESG approaches, thus affecting every company, especially energy companies. In this webinar, we will share findings for several material supply chains and generation technologies and discuss the next steps in this research program.

Speakers: Michael Young; Gürcan Gülen

Dr. Michael Young is a Senior Research Scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, UT Austin. His Ph.D. specializing in soil physics and hydrology was earned from University of Arizona. Before joining the Bureau in 2010, he held research positions at the Desert Research Institute in Nevada, and Georgia Institute of Technology. His current research includes water/land impacts from energy development, the connection between water resources, landscape development, and human interactions; and water conservation at the community level using integrated modeling. Dr. Young has authored or co-authored nearly 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and given 200+ presentations at scholarly meetings. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and Soil Science Society of America.

Dr. Gürcan Gülen is an energy economist with 25 years of international experience in policy, regulatory and market research on and modeling of oil, natural gas, and electric power value chains; and associated strategic technical assistance and customized capacity building in numerous countries across several continents. He continues to teach in Executive Education programs on energy value chains. Dr. Gülen published numerous articles in peer-reviewed and industry publications, authored or co-authored several books or book chapters, and presented to a wide range of audiences internationally. He is a USAEE SeniorFellow.He has been a member several professional associations and served as an officer in USAEE.