By Nick Hodge of GreenChipStocks.com
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You can often get a pretty good pulse on emerging cleantech themes by reading the pages of the Green Chip Review.
Going over my articles from the past two months, I noticed a clear trend: water and smart grid are the themes of the day.
And it’s not hard to see why.
The American Southwest and Southeast are three years into the … Read the rest
GE Energy just announced that it has installed smart grid technologies for Colorado Springs Utilities to help them better manage power flow and customer communication in their service area. Here’s more on the announcement, from Trading Markets:
The newly installed GE PowerOn Outage Management System (OMS) helps CSU respond more quickly to power outages, while providing consumers with updated restoration-time estimates when outages do occur.
GE said that it is currently enhancing the system … Read the rest
General Electric (GE) is out with news this morning that it’s going to invest $100 million to open a manufacturing plant in NY that will produce advanced batteries, including high energy density, sodium based batteries that will be initially used in GE hybrid locomotives. The goal is to begin producing new batteries in the new facility within 2 years.
Matthew K. Rose, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation, … Read the rest
General Electric is trying to get the U.S. International Trade Commission to keep Mitsubishi’s rival wind turbines from entering the US market. According to GE, Mitsubishi’s Turbines use GE technology that infringes on 3 US patents. Here’s more, from the National Wind Watch website:
… Read the restThe three patents, issued in 1992, 2005 and 2008, are related to variable-speed turbines that adjust to ensure there is a consistent amount of power being supplied to the electrical
General Electric expects its wind division, GE Wind, to see double-digit growth this year,according to Reuters. The company attributes its expectations for growth to the release of new products and to an increase in sales to European customers, as well as the incentives for wind power that were built in to the US financial stimulus bill.
GE Wind is also gunning for Vestas, according to Rainer Broering, the head of GE Wind in Germany. He … Read the rest
General Electric, Florida Power and Light, Cisco Systems and Silver Springs Networks just announced that the four companies will team up to build a smart grid to serve the city of Miami. The new program, which will be called Energy Smart Miami, involves installing smart meters in more than 1 million Miami homes and businesses, as well as constructing an automated smart grid to support the smart meters. The program should create approximately 1,000 new … Read the rest
General Electric (GE) continues to invest in Michigan based, lithium ion batter maker A123 Systems, providing another $15 million in financing and gaining a seat on the board in exchange. This follows the recent announcement that A123 Systems was selected by Chrysler to develop lithium batteries for their line of electric vehicles due out in 2013.. assuming of course Chrysler stays in business or is bought out. GE now owns about 10% of A123 Systems … Read the rest
Together, General Electric Company and Vestas Wind Systems took a combined 56% of the US market in 2008, selling an unprecedented 4,648 megawatts. Overall, wind power installations rose by 58% last year, with a total of 8,300 megawatts. Employment in the wind industry was also up to 85,000 employees, an increase of 70 percent, here are statistics from last year for the leading wind companies:
GE, based in Fairfield, Connecticut, retained the lead in largest … Read the rest
General Electric has laid off 85 workers at its solar panel plant in Newark, New Jersey, a workforce cut of about 30 percent. The plant also reduced production to a single shift. The layoffs were the result of the global economic credit crisis, which has made it more difficult for GE’s customers to get credit for solar projects.
In an article on Delaware Online, GE Energy Spokesman Tom Rumsey commented on the layoffs, saying
"It’s … Read the rest
According to Jay Yarow at CNNMoney.com, GE Capital is investing in Tesla Motors. The article quotes the contents of a leaked interview in which Tesla CEO Elon Musk tells Car and Driver:
We’ve raised around $40 million, and a bit of news that hasn’t come out yet [is] General Electric is investing in Tesla. [GE Capital] will be the second-largest investor in this round, after me. Our business plan that we presented to investors gets … Read the rest