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When he was a teenager, Allen Millard’s design and technology class in England went on a field trip to a coal-fired power plant. The visit changed his life. 

“For someone who was 15 years old to see this great big power station with all these massive machines and huge amounts of complexity, it was really fascinating,” Millard recalls. “Yet it was run by ordinary people who were very approachable and could explain how everything worked. I thought, ‘This is where I want to be.’”

Fifteen years ago, the world’s power grids were starting to change fast. As coal plants retired and renewables expanded, power systems needed technology that could deliver both flexibility and scale. GE Vernova’s H-class gas turbine was built for that moment, and its record-breaking combined-cycle efficiency helped make it the fastest-growing fleet in its class.

The conditions for building new wind projects in Germany are evolving rapidly. Developers are working within a sophisticated landscape of auction tariffs and evolving regulations. Planning reforms have helped bring more permits into the industry, but auction volumes have not always kept pace. This environment rewards precision and high-level coordination. The result is a business model that prioritizes disciplined execution and operational certainty. 

The world’s demand for energy shows no sign of abating. By 2050, global energy consumption is expected to be around one-third higher than in 2022, driven by population growth, booming demand from commercial and industrial sectors to enable the growth of artificial intelligence, and higher living standards, among other factors.

In an increasingly electrifying world, efficiency is crucial. The global energy sector is adopting HVDC (high-voltage direct current) technology for its superior capability and cost-effectiveness over long distances. HVDC systems can transmit more than three times as much power as alternating current (AC), with up to 50% fewer losses.

The scene: northwest Germany. A quiet farm. Enter a university student with a question that would shape her future. “Hey, when are you getting a wind turbine?”

It was a casual moment, but for Julia Vey, then an apprentice at GE Vernova in nearby Salzbergen, it planted a seed. Back in the early 2000s, wind power was still small-scale, and large turbines were rare. But Julia was fascinated — and determined to be part of what she sensed was coming.

A bolt of lightning crackles through the air. An instant later there’s a flash, followed by an ominous sizzle: the lightning struck a powerline. Normally, you’d run inside and call the electric company.

Just before midday on Monday, April 28, Claudia Blanco boarded a flight from Barcelona to Jerez de la Frontera, a small city in Spain’s southernmost region. Blanco, who is the chief innovation and artificial intelligence officer for GE Vernova’s Electrification Systems business, was looking forward to her week. Although her diary was crammed with meetings and deadlines, she was planning to work from her peaceful woodland home, just a 40-minute drive from Jerez’s airport.