On 15 January 2026, ETN Global’s Managing Director, Christer Björkqvist moderated a panel discussion titled “Turbomachinery for Decarbonisation (Power / Propulsion)” at the Global Power and Propulsion Society (GPPS) Forum 2026.

The discussion featuring Federico Bonzani (Ansaldo Energia), Chris Johnston (Power Systems Mfg., LLC, a Hanwha company), Vince Sidwell (Pratt & Whitney) and Khawar Syed (Crosstown H2R) explored how gas turbines must adapt to a shifting landscape across power generation and aviation.

The panel examined three possible energy-system scenarios, exploring how turbomachinery design, operation and investment choices may differ over the 2030–2040 timeframe:

1. Flexibility dominated systems: Strong growth in variable, renewable energy would require gas turbines to act as peaking or backup assets. The priority here would be rapid start-up, low-load stability, and fuel flexibility (and particularly increased need for hydrogen availability).
2. Balanced transition systems: In this scenario, gas turbines would operate as mid-merit assets, balancing efficiency, flexibility and retrofit readiness (gradually increasing hydrogen blending and deploying Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) solutions).
3. Firm capacity, constrained systems: Should deployment of renewables slow down, gas turbines would be running near base load. Priorities would be on high-efficiency, durability and lifecycle performance.

While the audience voted that scenario two is the most probable for the 2030-2040 timeframe, nobody knows what the future might bring, nevertheless it was agreed that turbomachinery is not just a transition technology, it is a resilient destination technology that is essential for secure, and decarbonised energy future.