Their ship’s come in: The agreement is closely tied to GE’s ecomagination and healthymagination initiatives, both of which help meet sustainability goals. Under ecomagination, GE develops solutions and technologies that are energy-efficient while healthymagination works to drive costs out of the system while simultaneously improving quality of care and increasing access. Pictured above is the Port of Rotterdam, seen when the Emma Mærsk is being unloaded. When launched in 2006, it was the largest container ship ever built. Photo: Vincent Jannink/AFP/Getty Images.

The new strategic alliance will focus on GE ecomagination technologies and solutions in areas such as water management and re-use, energy efficiency and emissions reduction. The first effort out of the gate will involve creating a pilot smart grid project in the port of Rotterdam. Officials expect that there will soon be an increase in renewable energy production in the port area – and the first phase of the project will tackle the challenge of how to best adapt the electricity infrastructure to meet the changes.

The agreement comes at a time when emissions generated from Rotterdam and the neighboring German Ruhr region are the highest in Europe. The issue led to the creation of the Rotterdam Climate Initiative, which has set the aggressive target of reducing CO2 emission by 50 percent by 2025 when compared to 1990 levels. Proposals currently being discussed to help meet that goal include developing a major Carbon Capture and Storage program by 2015; driving energy efficiency in businesses, homes and government facilities; and requiring the city council to make 75 percent of its purchases of goods and services be environmentally-friendly.

As we described in our story this summer about GE’s sustainable cities road show, the work envisioned for Rotterdam, as with cities elsewhere, is designed to leverage a number of GE technologies and areas of expertise and create a coordinated solution on a large scale. It’s hoped that successes in one city can then be applied to other cities facing similar issues. Similarly, GE currently has four projects – in France, Italy, Spain and Hungary – that are among the first to be awarded “Benchmark of Excellence” status under the European Commission’s sustainable energy technology initiative. “We see tremendous potential for exploring local and international business opportunities, while using the port of Rotterdam as a demonstration site and vehicle for innovation and sustainable development,” said Mark Elborne, Regional Executive for North Europe.

On course: Jeff Immelt, GE’s Chairman and CEO, visited Rotterdam in October to meet with city officials. He’s seen here in the control Room of the Port. With much of Rotterdam’s workforce commuting in, officials also hope that the new innovation projects will also improve the local quality of life and result in more people calling Rotterdam home.

* Learn more about Rotterdam’s goals to reduce emissions
* Read “GE’s “sustainable cities” road show tours Europe”
* Read “Google & GE call for home energy info in Copenhagen”
* Learn about four GE cities projects that received “Benchmark of Excellence” awards
* Learn about Europe’s biggest initiative to reduce urban greenhouse gas emissions
* Learn more about the European road show
* Learn more about GE’s work on “Building Sustainable Cities”

Rail good news! The Model C25 six-axle locomotives were designed specifically to accommodate Nigeria’s weight per axle and clearance characteristics. Locomotives similar to the C25 are already successfully hauling freight in South Africa. Approximately 17,000 GE locomotives are in use in more than 50 countries around the world.

The new GE fleet will not only help Nigeria meet its rail ambitions — they mark another global jobs collaboration across GE. Just as we reported in our recent “sugarland express” story about ethanol giant Cosan ordering 50 locomotives for its Brazilian operations, the engines are manufactured in our Grove City, Pennsylvania plant while the locomotives are built by GE’s facility in Brazil. The South America plant has built GE diesel electric locomotives, including the C Series being used by Nigeria, since 1967.

Daniel Weinreich

Lorenzo Simonelli, President and CEO of GE Transportation, said “the arrival of the first locomotives represents an important step in GE Transportation’s entry into the Nigerian market place.” And as GE’s Daniel Weinreich explains in the audio clip below, the new technology being introduced into the aging Nigerian fleet will not only mean improved hauling capabilities on both freight and passenger lines, but increased fuel efficiency, too.

GE has a long-standing relationship with Nigeria in other sectors such as energy, aviation, and oil & gas, with over 170 employees in country. In 2008, GE’s revenues in Africa were $3.5 billion, an increase of almost 40 percent over 2007. For example, GE Aviation has sold about 95 engines with a list value of $1 billion in Nigeria since 2006. And, of the more than 200 GE gas turbines currently installed in Africa, Nigeria is home to more than half.

A fast train to Africa: The C25 Locomotive is seen here in Brazil with a delegation from Nigeria before shipping. From left to right: Bature Gafai, Director of Land Transport; Bernard Udoh, Chairman House Committee of Land Transport; Kayode Garrick, Nigerian Ambassador to Brazil; Isa Ibrahim Bio, Minister of Transport; Senator Yakubu Lado, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Land Transport; Mohammed Mijindadi, GE Transportation Commercial Leader for West Africa; and Umar Sarkinfada, Minister of the Nigerian Embassy in Brazil.

* Read today’s announcement
* Learn more about GE’s other operations in Nigeria
* Read “GE and Nigeria ink landmark infrastructure agreement” on GE Reports
* Read “Healthcare in Africa: A closer look at Ghana” on GE Reports
* Read “The sugar-land express: Brazil orders 50 locomotives” on GE Reports
* Read more Transportation stories on GE Reports

The RES Alliance, which includes GE among its members, says a stronger national standard would support hundreds of thousands of new American jobs and prevent a near-term collapse in some industries. With a 25 percent Renewable Electricity Standard, or RES, by 2025, every state will see renewable electricity supported job growth, the study found. Click on the image to enlarge it and to view the footnotes.

As USA Today reports in its story today, “Unlike three dozen other countries, including China, the U.S. doesn’t have a national standard to drive use of renewable energy, although it’s being debated in Congress.” Although 30 states have renewable standards, the alliance told the paper that “state standards are often unenforceable and lack the punch of a national standard that would more forcefully drive use of renewables. That would entice companies to put manufacturing and operations in the U.S. as opposed to other countries, they say.”

The chart above show’s the study’s analysis of job creation in renewables industries if a 12 percent, 20 percent, and 25 percent standard were adopted. Job growth in the biomass, waste-to-energy and hydropower industries would particularly benefit the Southeastern U.S., the study found. Click the chart to enlarge it.

* Read the full study
* Learn more about the RES Alliance
* Read “Renewable energy commitment could double jobs” in USA Today

The study found that direct jobs in the renewable electricity industry are focused in construction and manufacturing, but span many sectors. Click the chart to enlarge it.

The release of the study results come just as GE officially dedicated a $45 million Renewable Energy Global Headquarters in Schenectady, New York this week. The new facility spurred the creation of more than 650 new jobs in Schenectady, 150 more than originally anticipated and a year ahead of schedule.

Green hornet: A 48-kilowatt GE solar system installed nearby helps to power the building. It also meets federal Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building standards. Victor Abate, vice president, renewable energy for GE Power & Water, said the new HQ is “an important symbol of the rapid growth and success of our renewable energy business. When we entered the wind energy industry in 2002, it was a $200 million business for us. Today it has grown significantly, with revenues topping $6 billion.”

The big board: A state-of-the-art Remote Operations Center at the headquarters is one of two global facilities that provides continuous monitoring and diagnostic services for GE’s installed base of wind turbines and solar power electronics. As the local Daily Gazette described it: “The heart of the facility is its operations center, where employees monitor far-flung wind turbines from computer stations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Each employee is responsible for some 750 wind turbines. Generally, an employee can troubleshoot a turbine problem from the work station. For more complex problems, ‘we can pull in 150 engineers here to diagnose it,’ Abate said. In some cases, GE sends in mobile engineers to the site, which are often remote locations, to fix problems.”

Look familiar? GE Reports readers surely recognize this giant wind turbine blade, which is now permanently installed at the new HQ. We chronicled the massive blade’s highway journey across the U.S. from its Iowa construction facility in our “Blade Runners” video series. The dedication ceremony also marked the installation of GE’s 13,500th wind turbine globally. Together, they generate enough electricity to power nearly 6 million U.S. homes. GE is the largest supplier of wind turbines in North America, and the company’s 1.5-megawatt wind turbine is the most widely used wind turbine in the world.

* Read the Renewable Energy HQ announcement
* Watch “Blade runners: How 134-foot wind blades are born” on GE Reports
* Watch “Blade runners: GE’s wind blade breezes into town” on GE Reports
* Watch “Took a whole lot of trying, just to get up that hill” on GE Reports
* Read more GE Reports stories about our energy business

Going with the flow: The natural gas will be delivered by a new pipeline connecting the oil and gas fields of Urucu in the north with Manaus, northern Brazil’s second-largest city, pictured above. The goal of the Amazon project is to create a more reliable energy source for the country’s northern regions while at the same time helping Brazil to reach its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by between 36.1 and 38.9 percent from projected amounts in 2020.

Breitener Energética will install 46 of GE’s low-emission Jenbacher gas engine generator sets — 23 units at each plant site. The power company cited GE’s expanded gas engine manufacturing center in Jenbach, Austria, for having the engine production capacity needed to meet the power company’s delivery and construction schedules — which call for the units to arrive in April.

Meanwhile, in the Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Norte and Bahia, both near the country’s northeastern coast, commitments have just been made to use GE’s wind turbines — marking the ecomagination technology’s debut in the country.

Big fans of Brazil: Both energy developers, DESA and Renova, chose GE’s 1.5 megawatt class of wind turbines – of which more than 13,500 are installed globally. They’re expected to be in commercial operation by July of 2012. “This is Renova’s first move into the wind business and we were concerned about reliability and efficiency in our choice of technology,” said Vasco Barcellos, CEO of Renova Energia. “GE understood our needs and brought its technical teams to work close with us in the final steps of development of our projects.” Added Lindolfo Zimmer, CEO of DESA, “Wind farms are relatively new to the Brazilian energy market. We built a partnership with GE focused on getting the best technology matched with our technical needs.”

Brazil has relied heavily on hydropower for its electricity supply. But the country has vast, untapped wind resources, thanks in large part to strong wind conditions along the country’s 4,600-mile coastline.

Meanwhile, further north, Mexico City is also jumping into cleaner energy in a big way by using GE’s gas turbine technology, which is also part of the ecomagination portfolio, to convert a conventional power plant into the first large-scale cogeneration plant in Mexico. Cogeneration is the simultaneous production of electricity and heat using a single fuel such as natural gas. The process harnesses heat that would otherwise be wasted – and it also results in what’s known as higher thermal efficiency, which in turn allows carbon dioxide emissions to be substantially reduced.

Cleaner and meaner: GE Energy will supply two Frame 7FA gas turbines to a plant in the state of Tabasco, Mexico. The latest version of the turbine is pictured above. In addition, GE has signed a 20-year Contractual Service Agreement to provide a full range of plant services.

The Mexico City operation will not only offer increased efficiency, but will supply process steam to one of the country’s most important natural gas complexes. In 2008, the Mexican Congress passed legislation that calls for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent below 2002 levels by the year 2050.

The government is promoting combined heat and power, or cogeneration, as an energy efficient option to help meet the country’s energy goals.

* Read the Amazon power project announcement
* Read the Brazil wind turbine announcement
* Read the Mexico cogeneration plant announcement
* Read “GE Helps Brazilian Amazon Go Green” in Forbes

Learn more about GE in Brazil in these GE Reports stories:
* “Brazil’s turbines sweetly hum with sugar-based ethanol”
* “The sugar-land express: Brazil orders 50 locomotives”
* “Brazil’s new Azul airline inks $1B services deal with GE”
* “GE wins $250 million offshore drilling contract in Brazil”

What’s up doc? By replacing analog film and film processing with digital images, the GE Digital Mammography Platform, pictured above, offers significant advantages including less waste and reduced energy, water, and chemicals use. Replacing an analog mammography system that processes 27,400 films per year with a GE digital mammography system can eliminate the need to store — and ultimately landfill — more than 890 lbs of film annually.

At the heart of the ecomagination certification process is a belief that investing in, and developing, environmentally advanced products and services can help increase customers’ ability to compete and win. Reducing energy use and waste ultimately reduces cost in the system, said John Dineen, President and CEO of GE Healthcare.

Those cost benefits that come with ecomagination certification dovetail with GE Healthcare’s larger healthymagination goals to increase access and quality, while reducing costs. It’s a theme that GE Vice Chairman John Rice brought to the healthcare panels he joined at the just-concluded World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “During the most severe economic downturn in sixty years, we believe it is essential to continue investing in research and development,” he said at the forum. “And with healthymagination’s focus on developing healthcare products that make health better for more people, we believe GE can take a leadership role in addressing these problems.”

Today’s news gives GE Healthcare a total of seven product families that are ecomagination certified — which translates into 18 products. GE’s Centricity Enterprise Electronic Medical Record made the ecomagination cut today as it can help reduce costs, improve productivity, and eliminate or reduce the number of forms that comprise a patient’s medical record — reducing the amount of paper used, stored and ultimately sent to landfills. Other products certified today include GE’s family of high efficiency magnetic resonance (MR) imaging systems, which employ more efficient electronics and an innovative water-cooling technology that helps cut energy use by about 34 percent compared to the previous generation systems.

And GE’s WAVE Bioreactor system — which is used for producing items such as vaccines — uses disposable bags to grow cell cultures, thereby eliminating the need to clean or steam sterilize large stainless steel tanks. This reduces water and energy consumption — and staff time requirements. Compared to the stainless steel system it replaces, annual energy consumption drops by up to 43 percent.

* Read today’s announcement
* Learn about other healthcare ecomagination products
* Read more healthcare stories on GE Reports
* Read more ecomagination stories on GE Reports

John Krenicki, GE Energy’s president and CEO, is in Davos and one of the points he’s focusing on during his panel discussions is how to drive city-scale deployments of proven smart grid technologies. For example, GE is working with partners in Miami, Florida to deploy more than 1 million advanced wireless “smart meters” — giving the project the potential to be the most comprehensive and holistic smart grid city implementation ever launched in the U.S. While it’s a huge win for Miami’s energy future, for the gains to really move the needle on efficiency and productivity, they need to be replicated at the city level around the world.

Just the beginning: Other pieces of the puzzle being talked about at Davos focus on helping consumers understand that smart meters, although a critically important foundation in smart grids, are just a gateway to a more sustainable and economically competitive future. Regulatory frameworks are also on the agenda, as they need to be adapted so that utilities are rewarded for changing and driving efficiency. Click on the image above to see GE’s vision of a Net Zero Energy Home.

As Bob Gilligan, Vice President, GE Energy — Transmission and Distribution, just wrote in an essay published on arabianbusiness.com: “Smart grid technologies can increase energy efficiencies and improve utilization of the existing electrical infrastructure. Asset optimization technologies can help prolong electrical transformer life. Energy management systems can accommodate the integration of higher percentages of cleaner energy sources into the electrical system.” And smart grid technologies can meet the challenge of renewable energy sources like wind and solar, he writes, by helping to manage the fluctuations that come from these sources. “Smart grid is not a vision of the future,” he says, “but rather a solution to the energy and environmental challenges facing us today.”

Part of the conversation in Davos is the way in which these smart grid efforts can go hand in had with other energy efficiency solutions that are within easy reach. In an article he wrote for the WEF, “Towards a More Energy Efficient World,” John Krenicki says: “Incremental improvements, when multiplied across the scale of the energy sector, can result in huge gains in energy efficiency and carbon reductions.” John writes that his “favorite opportunities” on the supply side start with the substantial quantities of electricity that are lost in the transmission and distribution of power. “For example, in the United States, line losses approach 6 percent of total generation; in India, these losses can reach 25 percent of generation,” he writes. “The technology exists to minimize these line losses.”

His other favorites include utilities investing in technologies that save power by reducing and optimizing voltage and capturing the heat that’s generated when producing electricity to create more power — a technology known as combined heat and power, or “cogeneration.”

Read more about GE Energy on GE Reports in the stories below:
* “Putting flare gas on the firing line at the WEF in Davos”
* “Thinking locally with energy tech at Copenhagen”
* “Google & GE call for home energy info in Copenhagen”
* “Transformers Part 2: Flipping NJ’s smart grid switch”
* “Building smart washers/dryers in KY to create 430 jobs”
* “Getting smarter about the smart grid”
* “Carbon-neutral Masdar City plugs in smart appliances”
* Learn about GE’s smart grid efforts in Florida, Oklahoma and Houston

Why flare? When gas is a by-product of oil development but immediate markets are not available, in some countries there are insufficient incentives to capture and use that gas. Instead it is vented or flared. The hurdles to productive gas use grow if domestic gas and electricity prices are controlled at low levels or if high levels of contaminates, such as hydrogen sulfide, increase the cost of gathering, processing and transporting this associated gas.

Approximately 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas are flared into the global atmosphere each year — which is roughly equivalent to the annual gas use of every residence in the U.S. It’s also the same as a 400 million metric ton contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions — which is roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of 77 million cars, or about 34 percent of the US fleet. Flaring also leads to large impacts on local populations in terms of environmental degradation, which can result in loss of livelihood and severe health issues.

Missed opportunity: One key area in the spotlight is what’s called “associated gas flaring,” or the flaring of byproduct gas produced by oil wells. While gas flaring has been part of the oil industry since its inception, some of the largest waste gas streams occur in remote areas where lack of a market, lack of pipeline access, and/or small volumes do not justify the expense of gas gathering.

The technology to address the problem exists today — in fact, much work has been done over the last decade so that large scale flaring is rare at new projects. However the next phase of flare reduction at old and isolated sites is going to be more challenging, which is why industry and governments need to work together to address the issue.

Flare gas reduction is timely for Davos because the role of the international community is seen as critically important if widespread action is to make a difference. International organizations like the World Bank’s Global Gas Flaring Reduction Initiative, the International Energy Agency, and the G8 have all already seized upon the issue.

Davos represents another unique opportunity to make the case that gas flaring is really a global environmental issue — and one that offers long-term financial benefits and associated cost reductions to countries and developers.

Burning issue: Major oil producing countries including Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia have made progress in gathering and utilizing their associated gas. In fact, most new oil developments, such as those in Algeria, Angola or Kazakhstan, incorporate associated gas re-injection and gas gathering as part of the overall development plan. But there’s still work to be done in Nigeria, other parts of the Middle East, and Russia — which is the largest flaring nation, but has reduction goals targeted for 2014.

* Read more GE Energy stories on GE Reports
* Read “Smart grid wind technologies breeze into solar”
* Read “Thinking locally with energy tech at Copenhagen”
* Read “Google & GE call for home energy info in Copenhagen”
* Read “Builder of largest US wind farm inks $1.4B turbine deal”
* Watch “Transformers Part 2: Flipping NJ’s smart grid switch“

Big things in small packages: The magnet that GE researchers are developing will be smaller and will require less wire to support an MRI scanner. The reduction in wire would also help reduce the overall cost of an MRI system. “The whole idea is to create a more highly mobile, less costly MRI system platform that delivers the same high resolution and quality of imaging for patients,” said GE’s Kathleen Amm, Lab manager, Electromagnetics and Superconductivity.

In magnetic resonance imaging, the magnet is the key part of the system that enables detailed images that differentiate various soft tissues inside the body, such as in the brain and the cardiovascular system. To obtain images with such high resolution and quality, the magnet must be kept at super cool temperatures of -269 degrees Celsius — which is only a few degrees above absolute zero and as cold as outer space.

Cryogenic liquids, or liquids at ultra-low temperatures, are used today to keep it cool — but cryogenic liquids require special venting and other room specifications, which make the MRI systems more expensive and difficult to install. As a result, many parts of the world still do not have access to this potentially life-saving technology.

A giant leap: The potential impact of the new research can be seen when comparing the size of the scanner in the artist’s rendition at the top of the page and one of GE’s latest sanners, above. The Magnetic Resonance Imaging Laboratory at GE Global Research is currently focused on developing new diagnostic imaging techniques, MR systems, and hardware. The first 1.5T whole-body scanner was developed in Global Research’s MRI lab in Niskayuna in 1983 — with that breakthrough, revolutionary at the time, followed by major innovations in MR imaging.

The research now underway is designed to develop a cryogen-free magnet that would considerably reduce these costs and installation requirements As Minfeng explains, that’s especially important “in regions where cryogen and cryogen services are limited.” The end goal is to dramatically expand access to underserved communities worldwide — which is a key driver of GE’s new healthymagination business strategy.

* Read today’s announcement
* Read Minfeng Xu’s blog post
* Learn more about Minfeg Xu in a Q&A
* Learn more about advanced imaging at GE Global Research
* Read more stories and see videos about our labs on GE Reports
* Read “$1,000 genome project advances to NIH round two” on GE Reports
* Read “Wearable airborne chemical sensor wins NIH award” on GE Reports
* Watch “Pediatric design turns scary MRIs into ‘Adventures’” on GE Reports

Moment in the sun: Because the energy output of a solar power plant is directly related to the availability of the sun, anticipating the load that the solar power plant will provide can present a challenge for the utility grid, causing the plant to trip off-line. In order to ensure that solar power plants stay online, the variability needs to be managed so that it is more predictable — even during disturbances such as intermittent cloud cover.

As Earth2Tech explained: “To modify the inverter for solar, GE changed the way it connects to power projects, because solar panels generate direct current, which must be turned into the alternating current used by most appliances, whereas wind turbines generate alternating current… GE also modified the software to enable utilities to monitor and control the solar power plants. And the inverter had to be packaged with a new skin suitable for outdoor installations, as wind inverters are usually kept inside the towers, while solar inverters need to be able to survive the elements.”

Family tradition: Engineering and design of GE’s Brilliance Solar Inverter was completed at GE’s controls center of excellence in Salem, Virgina. GE already makes 4,000 wind converters annually and has increased production at the Salem facility to include solar. The technology was adapted from that used with GE’s fleet of 1.5 MW wind turbines — over 12,000 of which are in the field.

According to New Energy Finance, demand for solar energy has grown about 30 percent per year for the past 15 years, while hydrocarbon energy demand typically grows less than 2 percent a year. As wind and solar power plants increase in size and number to meet these demands, they are beginning to have a greater impact on the grid, displacing more traditional sources of power generation.

“We believe that there will be significant growth in large-scale projects as the United States and the world strive to meet renewable energy targets,” said Victor Abate, vice president-renewables for GE Power & Water. “The challenge will be integrating these larger solar projects — which are also powered by a variable fuel source — in a reliable way.”

Solar’s mission control: SunIQ is the name of GE’s suite of solar plant monitoring and controls systems. “The software that comes with the inverter presents information about solar projects in the same way that utilities and power-plant operators are already familiar with viewing power plant data,” Earth2Tech notes. GE’s work in renewables includes a global services organization that offers 24/7 remote monitoring and diagnostics centers and parts support.

* Read “Solar-powered water purification units ship to Haiti” on GE Reports
* Read a blog post by Oliver Mayer, who developed the solar-powered water units in GE’s labs
* Read stories about GE Energy’s latest projects on GE Reports
* Learn about our solar research in “Catching rays with solar sails” on GE Reports
* Read about our research into large scale energy storage for renewables
* Learn more at about GE’s solar inverter
* Read “GE Puts Wind Converter to Work for Solar” on Earth2Tech.com
* Read the announcement about GE’s SunIQ technology