Session: 04-01 Research for Clean Energy Transition (Socio-Technical, Education and Policy)

Paper Number: 106943

106943 - A Transdisciplinary Approach and Design-Thinking Methodology for Energy Transition 

Greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at an alarming rate, causing significant environmental impact and the climate emergency for the future of the World. This is currently the most pressing problem for the humanity, and we must re-think and act on how we generate, transmit, distribute, and consume energy for industry, buildings and transportation. Development of creative solutions and strategies requires an energy transition framework, and should involve every person, company, entity and all governments. Such a framework can only be achieved with an efforts at a global scale, which needs to convince industry to change their traditional methods, people to alter their consumption  behaviors, and governments to change their rules, regulations and incentives. The complexity and the magnitude of this enormous task demands coordination and collaboration of all stakeholders besides the need for technological innovations making new green technologies applicable, scalable, and sustainable. Yet, such an effort should start at small and manageable scale.

In this paper we propose a transdisciplinary approach and design-thinking methodology (TADTM) to tackle this enormous task. Our premise is that this complex problem needs fundamental understanding of not only engineering solutions but also business, financing, socio-economic factors, governance and regulations. Towards this, we will emphasize the need for a solid transdisciplinary framework for industrial corporations to change their energy policies with the help of either/both practical and doable energy efficiency measures and by using a renewable/alternative energy modalities.  It is obvious that carbon emitting hydrocarbon-based fuels must be replaced by alternative and clean fuels and processes. Using wind, sun and hydro power as a source has the limitation of intermittency. Hydrogen and nuclear seem to be viable alternatives to be used as base load; however, they come out with their own limitations as well.

After discussing the general framework behind our ideas, we will focus on hydrogen as the potential change agent for the industries. Even though there is an ever-growing new technological choices for hydrogen generation, understanding their technological limitations and reducing the cost of hydrogen generation are essential for scaling up the hydrogen use and for convincing governments and different industries. Private sector may have a leading role together with availability of financing supported by government incentives. In this opinion paper, we will take hydrogen as case study, and will explore opportunities and challenges in setting up a hydrogen ecosystem in Turkey in a systematical way based on TADTM.

Presenting Author: Canan M. Ozsoy Ozyegin University ;Center for Energy,Environment and Economy

Presenting Author Biography: Canan was born in Istanbul, Turkey. She attended University of Istanbul and graduated with a doctorate degree in Dental Medicine in 1985. Canan received her Master of Business Administration degree from Bosporus University. She worked as a Doctor of Dental Medicine until she joined the Pharmaceutical Industry at the end of 1989, as a product manager in Hoechst Pharma (Sanofi today). She worked on various marketing and commercial leadership roles in the pharmaceutical industry. She moved to Paris France for a global marketing leadership role in pharmaceutical industry in 2004.

After working 4 years based out of France as Global Leader for Metabolic Diseases, in March 2007 she joined General Electric Healthcare as VP of Marketing for Region International, responsible from Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa & China. In March 2009, she was appointed as Chief Marketing Officer of Healthcare Systems and she moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to join the Global Leadership team and worked on innovation, strategy, and marketing of new products. In November 2011, she has been promoted to Global General Manager of Mammography and has moved back to Paris, France to lead GE Healthcare Global Mammography business.
Eventually, she has been appointed as President and CEO of GE Turkey in August 2012. Her responsibility was driving GE’s growth in Turkey, a leading emerging market until June 2021. Since then she is acting as a consultant and retains the title Chairwoman until June 2022. In 2017, she has been given additional responsibility as Chief Growth Officer in MENAT region. Currently she is an independent board member of Garanti BBVA since April 2019, and on the Board of Trustees and Board of SEV, an NGO on education. She is also on advisory board of AmCham in Turkey. In addition, Canan completed a master’s degree on Energy Technologies from Sabanci University (2015 September). She is often invited to give speeches at various industry events on, leadership, future of technology, digital transformation, and women in business. She has started her PhD at Ozyegin University on 2020 and is working on Energy Transition and Sustainability.