GE To Spend $1 Billion On Ecomagination R&D

GE will invest more than $1 billion on cleaner technology research and development for 2007, drawing closer to its pledge to invest $1.5 billion annually on ecomagination R&D by 2010. One of four GE ecomagination commitments originally made in 2005, R&D investment has reached a total of more than $2.5 billion since the program's inception.

In May, General Electric announced that it had doubled sales from environmentally friendly products to $12 billion over the past two years.

"GE's ability to reach our ecomagination goals requires a deep commitment to investing in innovative, leading-edge research, while expanding our partnerships with customers, universities and labs," said Lorraine Bolsinger, vice president, ecomagination, GE. "Ecomagination consistently delivers for our customers, and crossing the $1 billion mark for R&D investment will be further evidence of growing momentum."

Research and development funding for ecomagination is shared between GE's four GRCs (Schenectady/Niskayuna, NY, Shanghai, Munich and Bangalore) and each of GE's major businesses. The GRCs serve as dedicated labs for long-term R&D commitments and work to develop a broad technology portfolio to help meet a wide-range of energy and environmental challenges.

R&D projects include:

• Renewable energy - exploration of advanced concepts in wind, solar and biomass to improve the economics and availability of these clean, renewable energy sources,
• Advanced gasification technologies - for GE's Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle System to increase plant efficiency, lower emissions and make these systems carbon capture ready,
• Fuel efficiency - research in composite materials, advanced aerodynamics, turbine alloys and advanced coatings and combustion systems to improve the fuel efficiency and overall performance of present and future generations of aircraft engines and electric power generation systems,
• Hybrid systems - research to support the development of the next generation hybrid locomotive,
• Lighting - several energy efficiency initiatives such as Organic Light Emitting Diodes to reduce our energy consumption, and
• Water - programs to provide more affordable, less energy-intensive solutions to water purification and re-use that enable an increase in the quantity and quality of clean water around the globe.