Obama’s Visit to GE Highlights Role of Clean Energy

Posted on January 23, 2011 by quest

“It is a great honor to host President Obama at our historic Schenectady facility,” said GE CEO Jeff Immelt. “Our investments and commitment to innovation drive everything we do. The work done in Schenectady and across the Capital Region is key to our continued business success, enabling us to make a significant contribution to America’s manufacturing growth.” The Schenectady facility is the birthplace of GE and home to GE Energy’s Power & Water division, which develops and manufactures steam turbines, generators, wind turbines and solar technology. It also is the future home of GE’s advanced battery manufacturing facility. The Schenectady campus employs approximately 4,000 people who develop and manufacture the GE power generation technologies that are helping to provide more than a quarter of the world’s electricity.

The presidential visit highlights the company’s history of innovation in the Capital Region, which traces back to 1887 when Thomas Edison moved his Edison Machine Works to Schenectady, forming the General Electric Company in 1892. GE today is the nation’s second largest exporter and employs 300,000 employees world-wide, operating locally in more than 100 countries.

While touring the facility, Immelt also spoke to the president about GE’s commitment to America’s clean energy future. GE is one of the leading providers of renewable energy equipment in the world, with more than 14,500 wind turbines installed in more than 21 countries providing enough power to operate more than 7.25 million homes. GE recently opened its global renewable energy headquarters on the Schenectady campus. Through its ecomagination campaign, the company has approved more than 100 products and services across its broad portfolio of energy, aviation and transportation solutions.

GREEN NEWS WALL

LA Boost Power From Clean Renewable Energy

Posted on January 16, 2011 by quest

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, joined by environmental leaders and representatives from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), to announce the achievement of a major milestone — providing 20% of the City’s power from renewable energy sources in 2010. Mayor Villaraigosa said, “When I became Mayor, I set a goal to generate 20% of the City’s power from renewable energy sources by 2010 and I am proud to say that we have achieved that goal. We went from worst to first and quadrupled our renewable energy portfolio in a few short years while also keeping our rates lower than other major utilities. Today’s announcement illustrates that the DWP is a national leader in cost-effective, environmentally responsible and reliable energy.” “This is a historic and substantial accomplishment for the Department of Water and Power and the City of Los Angeles,” said Austin Beutner, LADWP General Manager. “We need to continue to reduce the impact of DWP operations on the environment and do it in an economically sustainable manner.”

The 20% by 2010 goal has been achieved through a combination of major projects and power agreements made during the Mayor’s administration. In June 2009, LADWP began full operation of the Pine Tree Wind Power Plant — the nation’s largest wind farm owned by a municipal utility, in the Tehachapi Mountains. Wind power comprised nearly 50% of all LADWP’s renewable energy in 2010 with small hydro-electric contributing 30%, geothermal/biofuels, 22%, and solar, 1%.

Reaching this milestone is the latest in a series of significant achievements by LADWP to meet the goals of Mayor Villaraigosa’s GREEN LA Action Plan to lead the national fight against global warming. In conjunction with increasing renewables and energy efficiency, a key factor in reducing greenhouse gases and promoting a cleaner environment is ending reliance on coal-generated power. LADWP is currently making this transition away from coal and in 2010, only 39% of its power portfolio came from coal. LADWP is in the process of divesting of the Navajo Generating Station in Arizona by 2014, which will reduce carbon emissions by an additional 26%.

UNDERSTANDING SUSTAINABILITY

Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to Speak at UN Energy Summit

Posted on January 12, 2011 by quest

Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will address Heads of State and international delegates at World Future Energy Summit (WFES), a forum that promotes collaboration, innovation and investment opportunities in renewable energy, environment and clean technology. The summit will be held in Abu Dhabi from 17-20 January 2011, and hosted by Masdar.

The visit by the UN Secretary-General underscores the growing role the UAE and Abu Dhabi are playing in driving the global adoption of renewable energy and clean technology innovation. Through Masdar, a multi-faceted initiative advancing the development and deployment of renewable and alternative energy technologies, Abu Dhabi has demonstrated its long-term commitment to discovering a viable roadmap for sustainability. “Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our times,” added Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. “The world needs to find the renewable energy and clean technologies which can mitigate its effects and set the world on a path to more sustainable economic growth and prosperity. The search for these solutions requires collaboration between governments, academia, enterprise and civil society. The longer we delay, the more we will pay – in resources, economic competitiveness, and lives.”

“The Secretary General’s leadership in ensuring climate change is addressed within a global framework and at the highest level of international cooperation has lead to significant progress,” said Dr. Al Jaber. “His enthusiasm and personal dedication, is one shared by the UAE’s leadership who have placed significant emphasis in ensuring the advancement of renewable energy and climate change mitigation are core elements of our economic development.”

The fourth World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi will be the world’s largest conference and exhibition on renewable and future energy solutions, innovations, investments, policy and vision. WFES, held at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, ADNEC, expects more than 25,000 attendees from around the world. The Summit that will cover a wide range of themes including energy policy, investment and funding, green buildings, clean transport, solar, wind and biofuels.

VISIT THE SOLAR WALL

Solar and Energy Efficiency Key to Ecomagination

Posted on January 9, 2011 by quest

From the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas GE announced today a new phase of its $200 million open innovation challenge. Building on the record-breaking global success of the “ecomagination Challenge: Powering the Grid,” GE and its venture capital partners today announced the “Powering Your Home” Challenge, which begins January 18 and seeks the best ideas for harnessing and managing energy at home. GE and venture capital partners seek innovations to improve household energy efficiency and harness wind, solar, hydro and biomass power.

The global challenge invites technologists, entrepreneurs and start-ups to share their best ideas and come together to build and improve the eco home of the future with new technologies. The Challenge is one of the largest ever with more than 4,000 ideas submitted and more than 1,100 in the category of home energy use. In the next phase of the Challenge, these ideas will be reexamined and participants are encouraged to submit new ideas or resubmit an idea if it has evolved. The Challenge will be open between January 18 and March 1, 2011.

“We launched the Challenge to spur innovation that will help transform how we create, connect and use power, and the number of passionate and innovative people who got involved to collaborate on global energy solutions has been a real eye-opener for GE,” said Beth Comstock, chief marketing officer and senior vice president, GE. The Challenge launched in July 2010. The Challenge is part of GE’s ecomagination business strategy and was formed as a global commitment to build innovative, clean-energy technologies and help fund the most promising ideas. Proposals are sought in two broad categories of the eco-home: energy efficiency, including management software, appliances and air conditioning; and renewable power, including solar, wind, hydro and biomass. In addition to investment, commercial relationships and other partnership opportunities, the judging panel of GE executives and leading academics and technologists will select five $100,000 Innovation Award winners whose ideas represent pioneering entrepreneurship and innovation.

A GREEN CAREER

GE invests $6 Billion in renewable energy

Posted on December 9, 2010 by quest

GE Energy Financial Services announced today that it reached its multi-year target of building a $6 billion portfolio of renewable energy investments by the end of 2010, inspired by GE’s ecomagination initiative. Alex Urquhart, president and CEO of GE Energy Financial Services said “We achieved this $6 billion milestone because of our competitive advantage as a GE business focused on one of GE’s core domain strengths, renewable energy. To maintain this momentum, drive further deployment of renewable energy worldwide and keep America competitive through technology innovation and job creation, we are calling on Congress to enact long-term, predictable renewable energy policies.”

Cumulatively, the projects and companies have supported thousands of “green collar” jobs worldwide, helped grow the multi-billion dollar US renewable energy manufacturing industry, and—according to US Environmental Protection Agency methodology—avoided more than 23 million tons a year in global greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to taking all the passenger vehicles off the road in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. GE Energy Financial Services started investing in renewable energy in 1987. It had amassed a $3 billion portfolio by January 2008, when it set a target of reaching $6 billion by the end of this year. The investments have spanned 14 countries, 95 wind farms, 40 solar installations, six hydroelectric projects, 12 landfill gas facilities, and 15 projects involving other technologies, across a wide spectrum of capital – from project equity to debt, and venture capital.

Across the United States, GE Energy Financial Services has made approximately 75 percent of its renewable energy investments in states with renewable portfolio standards, or regulations requiring increased electricity generation from renewable sources. The GE unit’s research has shown that investments in the wind industry have risen and fallen with the renewal and expiration of renewable energy incentives. The expiration of incentives in 2000, 2002 and 2004 caused a 76-90 percent drop in installed capacity in the United States from the previous year.

VISIT GREEN NEWS WALL

Hydropower runs through it

Posted on November 27, 2010 by quest

RainPower a Norwegian technology company has set up a new subsidiary company in Sweden and has also entered into a cooperation agreement with engineering firm KTAB to become a fully integrated provider of hydropower technology and services in the Swedish market. Since it was set up in 2007, RainPower has developed proprietary turbine technology at its hydropower laboratory in Trondheim.

CEO Svein Ole Strømmen of RainPower said “Establishing Rainpower in Norway has been very successful, and we feel that the time is right to take a look at the exciting hydropower market in Sweden.” “KTAB is an engineering company that has developed hydropower expertise in Kristinehamn. This expertise combined with a highly qualified technical team in Kristinehamn and innovative research environment in Norway will create a competitive total supplier of hydropower services in Sweden for planning, production, maintenance and service.

RainPower has employees at Kjeller, Sørumsand in Trondheim, Oslo and Hangzhou in China. The company, which is based on Kvaerner’s and General Electric’s hydropower expertise, supplies, hydroelectric turbines and all associated equipment for the production of clean electricity.