The recent United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) meeting in Dubai confirmed it will take a combination of generation sources to decarbonize electricity production, and nuclear energy will play a key role. 

In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg interviews Arshad Mansoor who is the President and CEO of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Mansoor provides his takeaways from the conference. 

“Now (there is) almost unanimous agreement on the importance on both large nuclear central station and small modular reactors. You can call this COP28 the Nuclear COP28 because I haven’t seen this (before) from leaders, from organizations, from industries,” said Mansoor.

Other generation sources are also needed.

“We should double-down, triple-down on wind and solar but we should triple-down on offshore wind.”

Mansoor said that EPRI research priorities align well with the global direction of energy and climate policy. 

“I think our long-term focus is spot-on which is, we’ve got to double-down on innovation on SMRs and long duration energy storage and on carbon-capture.”

Arshad Mansoor is responsible for the EPRI’s operation and portfolio of R&D programs. Mansoor has been with EPRI for 21 years and previously served as SVP of research and development, and VP of the Power Delivery and Utilization sector. He earned a B.S. in electrical engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology; and a M.S. and doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Texas in Austin.