GE’s concentrating solar power and other green technologies

GE’s concentrating solar power and other green technologies

by Stuart Hampton

General Electric (GE) may have a powerhouse of an old industrial name, but it is also open to new green energy opportunities.

Case in point, in June the company teamed up with California-based eSolar and Turkey-based investor MetCap Energy Investments, in a deal that allows GE to deploy Integrated Solar Combined Cycle (ISCC) technology to its customers around the world.

eSolar is a developer of next-generation, tower-based concentrating solar thermal technology. In contrast to flat panel photovoltaic solar arrays, which generate low amounts of electric power directly from the sun, the ISCC technology uses the sun’s heat as part of an integrated electricity generating process that enhances the output of a steam-driven turbine in a combined-cycle power plant.

An ISCC project combines a combined-cycle system gas turbine, steam turbine, generators, and a heat recovery steam generator, with an array of mirrors that concentrates solar energy on a tower to produce high-temperature steam. The steam generated in the solar field is then forced into the water-steam cycle of the combined-cycle plant, increasing the power of the steam turbine and creating extra MWs of power without using any additional natural gas. GE plans to integrate eSolar’s technology into its recently introduced FlexEfficiency 50 Combine Cycle technology aimed at improving the fuel efficiency of combined cycle power plants. GE plans to build its first ISCC plant in Turkey.

Earlier in the year the company positioned itself to become a major player in the “traditional” solar energy market, announcing it will build a 400 MW annual production capacity thin-film solar manufacturing plant, the largest in the US.

In another green initiative in 2011, GE acquired frame technology from Wind Tower Systems, which it will use to build taller wind turbine towers that can accommodate longer blades, as a way to boost its already robust wind energy manufacturing operations.

The company is also supporting the commercialization of electric cars, making a commitment to purchase 25,000 of them for fleet use by 2015.

GE may be an old dog in the energy market, but it is quite skilled at learning new tricks.

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Photo by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, used under a Creative Commons license.