On September 16, 2024, members of the GW Engineering’s Environmental and Energy Management Institute (EEMI) met with colleagues from the International Fund for China’s Environment (IFCE) and the Chinese Electric Power Development Association to discuss approaches to low carbon development in China. Leading the Chinese delegation was Dr. Ping He, President of the IFCE, and Mr. Ying Guangwei, Chairman of the Low-Carbon Energy and Smart Power Professional Committee of the China Electric Power Development Association.
Leading the GW delegation were Dr. Payman Dehghanian, Director of GW Engineering’s Smart Grid Lab and EEMI Director of Smart Grid Technologies; Professor Scott Sklar, EEMI Director of Sustainable Energy; and Dr. Jonathan Deason, EEMI Executive Director.
During the meeting, the delegates discussed three topics related to low carbon development in China. The first topic involved overall global trends in decarbonizing electricity generation, followed by an overview of China's new low-carbon power system by Mr. Guangwei, and concluding with a discussion of innovation and the development of smart power systems.
It is anticipated that the participating organizations will pursue partnership activities going forward, particularity through GW Engineering’s Smart Grid Laboratory (https://smartgridlab.seas.gwu.edu/) led by Dr. Dehghanian.
In addition, the delegates discussed the possibility of another visit to GW Engineering by Mr. Mei Dewen, Secretary-General of the Beijing Emissions Trading Association and member of the China Low Carbon Development Research Center at Peking University. Such a visit would be a follow-up to a previous visit to GW Engineering in 2016 when Mr. Mei was the keynote speaker at an EEMI-conducted symposium on “China's National Carbon Trading System” that was held in the Lehman Auditorium of the Science and Engineering Hall.