GE Goes Green! It Brings Good Things to Life?
On May 24th, GE, the former General Electric Corp and originally Thomas Edison’s company, went all out with their Ecomagination roll out. This huge marketing excercise had serveral purposes, formost among them to show/claim/build GE’s green credentials, their new “Green Products” and their recognition that Green is no longer a niche, but a cultural wave that is exploding across the world right now.
Now those who know about GE’s battles with the EPA and NY state over pollution remediation in the Hudson river, GE’s leadership position in CO2 producing generators, locomotives and jet engines, you might question their green credentials. Well, i questoin their past, but welcome their moves to improve their processes and create green products. I’ll discuss a few of the items below.
Of all the “Green” products, the least impressive was the hybrid powered locomotive. It’s a fossil fuel burning locomotive that uses hybrid technologies to generate power from diesel fuel and recover energy from braking. While this will reduce fuel use, it seems like a minor upgrade to what i remember calling “diesel electric” trains. In fact GE predicts it will reduce emmissions by about 10%. GE also introduced products to reduce NO and particultates, which is good, but not quite “green energy”
What GE makes that is green is wind generators, solar panels and reverse osmosis water desalination equipment and filters. These products generate energy with NO carbon emissions. Their water desalination plants use 25% less energy (according to GE) than those typically deployed around the world.
GE is the largest manufacturer of wind generators that have been deployed in the US. Three turbine models, a 1.5 MW, 2.5 MW and 3.6 MW are offered by GE, with over 5000 1.5 MW units deployed world wide. While GE manufacturers solar roof panels, there isn’t much new with that product. These products can be the salvation of the planet, a way to truly combat global warming. This is a way of eliminating CO2 from the process of generating electricity.
GE did announce announce their reason for this “new” focus. Don’t assume that it’s just for PR. GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt explained that GE had enter these business and is out promoting these green products as a way to make money. Profit is GE’s motive and Immelt is convince that “Green” isn’t a niche anymore, but a society wide realization of the need for fighting global warming, pollution and waste. This new “Green Mainstream” is forcing change quite rapidly since 2000.