From "Back to the Future" to Backing our Future

It was during the summer of 1992 when I watched the movie “Back to the Future I” for the first time, on a VHS video. I was super fascinated with the story and the idea of travelling in time probably like many others. That was the same year when I had started elementary school and also learning basics of physics, energy, electricity, etc.

Our hero, a 17-year-old high school student, Marty McFly is accidentally sent 30 years back to the 1955 in a plutonium-powered DeLorean "time machine" invented by Doctor Emmet Brown. In order to travel through time, the vehicle integrated with the flux capacitor needed to be traveling at 88 mph (140.8 km/h), and required 1.21 GW (gigawatts) of power, originally supplied by a plutonium-powered nuclear reactor.

By the time Marty caught up with him, Doc is already in a large room of his house which he uses for painting. The walls are decorated with portraits of famous inventors and scientists such as Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton and Thomas Edison (who at that time was known to me as the inventor of electric light bulb only) … After mumbling “One-point-two-one gigawatts” over and over as he continues his nervous dance, Doc Brown looks up at the portrait of Thomas Edison.

" Tom!" he shouts. " How am I gonna generate that kind of power? It can't be done, can it?"

Eventually, Doc explains to Marty that for the time machine's return trip (back to 1985), plutonium is not available in 1955 and says Marty is stuck there since the only source capable of generating that much power is a bolt of lightning and one never knows when or where it’s ever going to strike and the story goes on….(You can watch that clip here) 

This was the moment when I heard about a “gigawatt” for the first time. Right after the movie ended, I was so much into the story and I remember reaching for the encyclopedias to search for what a “gigawatt” is and how we can generate 1.21 GW when needed. At that age, my mind was simply telling me that if there is a sustainable way to do it without plutonium or lighting bolts, time travel could be possible any time! I remember reading lots of pages about how the electricity is generated, power plants, how electricity reach our homes… I was, again, fascinated…

Years passed, I attended a science high school followed by mechanical engineering major in college where I became much more interested in energy, thermodynamics and fluid mechanics so opted all power generation related courses as my electives. I had already decided before I even graduate; I was going to pursue a career on energy.

Throughout my career, I had the chance to take part technically and commercially in numerous different power generation projects and I’ve been lucky to witness the energy transition to renewables coming up through the ranks, now working for the Renewable Energy business of GE with a wide portfolio of on-shore, off-shore wind, hydro, digital, services and recently hybrids.

Today, we have gigawatts of record deployment of renewables overtaking fossil fuels in new power generation, taller, bigger and more powerful wind turbines, innovative controls and digital capabilities, solutions enabling the integration of multi-generation renewable resources. We are a great team of colleagues working together to harness the force of the water, strength of the wind and the heat of the sun; to create dispatchable green electrons whenever and wherever needed since we are dedicated to unleashing the limitless energy

In the movie, there is an awesome line by Doc Emmet Brown, he says

“Your future hasn’t been written yet. No one’s has! Your future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one!”

This is exactly why I do what I do at GE Renewable Energy. Writing a future with a sense of purpose and leaving a cleaner planet and brighter future for our next generations. And whenever I see our founder, Thomas Edison’s picture in our office, I think about also Doc Brown as I say “Yes Doc, it can be done!”

While I’ll always continue dreaming about time travel to be “back to the future” one day, I will always be proud backing our future together with my colleagues at GE Renewable Energy