US-based renewable energy group Urban Green Energy and GE have unveiled the world’s first integrated wind powered electric vehicle charging station. The innovative Sanya Skypump pairs UGE’s cutting-edge vertical wind turbines with GE’s electric vehicle (EV) charging technology to offer completely clean energy to power electric vehicles.

Installed by UGE Iberia, the Spanish branch of New York-based UGE, the first wind-powered EV charging station is located at Cespa’s global headquarters near Barcelona. Cespa is the environmental services subsidiary of Ferrovial Servicios, the world’s largest private transportation infrastructure investor.

More Sanya Skypumps will be installed later this year in the US and Australia at shopping malls, universities and other locations.

The integrated system incorporates both the energy production capacity of UGE’s 4K wind turbine and the EV charging capability of the GE Durastation in a single unit, with all required electrical systems located within the tower.

Designed for commercial and government customers, the Sanya Skypump combines environmental benefits with a strong statement to customers and the public.

“Since launching the Sanya Skypump, we have received inquiries from companies around the world that are looking to embrace sustainability,” says Nick Blitterswyk, CEO of UGE. “The Sanya Skypump is one of those rare products that enable institutions to demonstrate their commitment to the environment while providing a really useful service as well.”

The Sanya Skypump delivers power through a GE DuraStation EV charger, which enables faster charging using higher voltages.

Charles Elazar, marketing director of GE Energy Management’s Industrial Solutions business in Europe, says: “GE is launching a family of electric vehicle charging systems in Europe offering domestic and commercial users a range of easy-to-use, flexible systems to help make electric vehicles a practical, everyday reality.”

GE is a keen supporter of electric vehicles and has announced plans to purchase 25,000 electric vehicles by 2015 for use as company cars and to lease to corporate customers through its Fleet Services business.

Two new energy centers in London’s Stratford Cityand Kings Yard areas are to supply 10 megawatts (MW) of efficient power, heating and cooling for the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games as well as East London’s businesses and residential areas after the games conclude. Three of GE’s (NYSE: GE) 3.3-MW ecomagination-approved Jenbacher J620 cogeneration units are powering the energy centers and generating electricity equivalent to the amount used by 24,000 average UK homes.

The energy center initiative is a cornerstone of London 2012’s plan to increase the use of alternative energy, water conservation and recycling to minimize the environmental impact of the games. The London Olympic Delivery Authority built the facilities to help reach its target of a 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions while meeting the city’s power needs that are expected to surge as more than 15,000 athletes and millions of spectators arrive for the games.

The energy centers are designed to operate in combined cooling, heat and power – or “trigeneration” – mode to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Chilled water is generated by absorption chillers using the high-temperature heat available from the exhaust of the unit. Combined heat and power (CHP) technologies are more efficient than using separate electrical and thermal power systems and thus helps to reduce emissions from power generation. By using this technology, about 13,000 tons of CO2 savings can be achieved. This amount of greenhouse gas emission savings is equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions emitted by about 6,500 EU passenger cars.

In all, GE has supplied more than 800 Jenbacher engines for on-site power projects in the UK, representing about 8% of GE’s globally installed Jenbacher fleet. Combined, these units generate enough electricity equivalent to the amount used by about 1.8 million EU homes.

In what could help fuel widespread adoption of NG (natural gas) vehicles in the US and globally, GE researchers, in partnership with Chart Industries and scientists at the University of Missouri, have been awarded a program through Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) to develop an affordable at-home refueling station that would meet ARPA-E’s target of $500 per station and reduce re-fueling times from 5-8 hours to less than 1 hour.

Natural gas prices are at an all-time low and the number of NG vehicles is increasing, but several barriers are preventing greater adoption of this vehicle technology. These include the inconvenience and low availability of refueling stations and limited driving range of NG vehicles.

At-home refueling stations are sold today, but are expensive ($5000) and require long re-fueling times. The 5-8 hours required to refuel an NG vehicle often leaves overnight re-fueling as the only the viable option for vehicle owners. While these barriers can be more easily managed by established fleets, they are not practical for passenger vehicles parked in the driveway or garage at home.

Anna Lis Laursen, project leader and chemical engineer at GE Global Research, comments. “The goal of our project is to design an at-home refueling station that is much simpler in design, more cost effective and reduces re-fueling times to under an hour. By reducing the time and cost of re-fueling, we can break down the barriers that are preventing more widespread adoption of NG vehicles. If we can meet our cost targets, the price of a home refueling station would be less than typical appliances in the home such as a dishwasher or stove.”

Today, the number of NG vehicles globally is estimated at around 15 million, with more than 250,000 in the US. Most are fleet vehicles such as buses and delivery trucks, but they include some passenger cars as well. With further improvements in the infrastructure to support NG vehicles, the market penetration could be much higher.

One of the keys to enabling a more robust, cost-effective infrastructure is to provide more affordable and convenient re-fueling options. The at-home refueling station under development by GE, Chart Industries and the University of Missouri could meet this challenge.

The refueling station design being worked on is fundamentally different from how today’s re-fueling stations operate. Today’s systems rely on traditional compressor technologies to compress and deliver fuel to a vehicle. The research team from GE, Chart Industries and the University of Missouri will design a system that chills, densifies and transfers compressed natural gas more efficiently. It will be a much simpler design with fewer moving parts, and that will operate quietly and be virtually maintenance-free.

The total cost of the 28-month program will be approximately $2.3 million, which will be shared by ARPA-E and GE. As part of the program, GE researchers will focus on overall system design integration. Chart Industries and University of Missouri will address the detailed engineering, cost and manufacturability of the key system components.

GE will supply 31 of its 1.6-100 wind turbines for Fina Enerji’s Tayakadin wind project in Istanbul, Turkey, which will supply enough clean, wind-generated electricity to meet the needs of more than 14,000 Turkish households. The project will mark the first European installation of the GE 1.6-100 machine, which offers the highest efficiency of any wind turbine in its class, according to GE.

The 50-megawatt Tayakadin project supports the Turkish government’s plans to increase the country’s wind energy production to 20,000 megawatts by the year 2023. Turkey has one of the most favourable locations in Europe for wind energy development, with a potential wind generation capacity of about 48,000 megawatts. Much of that potential remains untapped, as the country’s existing wind farms produce about 1,800 megawatts.

“GE’s 1.6-100 technology builds on the broad experience of our 1.5 and 2.5 megawatt series, with more than 17,500 of those units installed today,” says Stephan Ritter, general manager of GE’s Renewable Energy business in Europe. “Featuring a 100-meter rotor diameter and 80-meter hub height, the 1.6-100 provides the highest capacity factor of any wind turbine for class 3 sites.”

Fina Enerji currently has 35 units of GE 2.5-100 wind turbines in operation at two wind power plant sites in Izmir and Hatay provinces for a total capacity of 87.5 MW. Tayakadin, near the booming city of Istanbul, is the third site where Fina Enerji will employ GE wind turbines.

A globally proven technology, GE anticipates installing more than 1,200 of these units in the United States within the next two years.

In addition to the wind turbines, GE will supply commissioning and technical advisory services for the Tayakadin project. FINA will do the installation and civil works of the project. The wind turbines will be shipped from GE’s Salzbergen, Germany facility by the end of 2012, with completion of the project expected by the first quarter of 2013.

GE has introduced the SGM1100, a PRIME (Power Line Intelligent Metering Evolution) PLC compliant smart meter designed for global utilities following IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) requirements. The SGM1100 provides utilities with a cost-effective and flexible solution to meet the requirements of an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), laying the foundation for increasing efficiency and better managing energy costs.

AMI is the cornerstone to grid modernisation, enabling two-way communication between the utility and the consumer. Through AMI, utilities and consumers can benefit from improved power reliability, greater availability of renewable energy and increased control of energy usage including enhanced electric vehicle charging.

The SGM1100 is a single-phase meter designed to support residential and small commercial energy consumers. In alignment with local standards, the SGM1100 meets IEC requirements and provides PLC AMI communications with the PRIME and the DLMS/COSEM protocols.

Designed for ease of use, GE’s SGM1100 enables utilities to accelerate installations, automate provisioning and reduce the amount of required post-installation support, which results in faster and more cost-efficient deployments.

Electricite de France (EDF), one of the world’s largest utilities, and GE plan to jointly develop and install the world’s first FlexEfficiency* 50 Combined Cycle Power plant to be connected to a national grid. The move marks the latest development in a 40-year strategic relationship between EDF and GE.

The FlexEfficiency* 50 plant being co-developed by EDF and GE will showcase an unprecedented combination of flexibility and efficiency with low emissions. The new combined-cycle plant will be located at Bouchain, an existing EDF power plant site in northern France, and will produce 510 megawatts, enough electricity for 600,000 French households. The FlexEfficiency 50 plant is the result of GE’s $500 million investment in research and development to deliver cleaner and more efficient energy.

The plant is expected to achieve greater than 61 percent efficiency at base load, which will conserve natural gas and reduce the production of greenhouse gases. Its operating flexibility will enable the plant to respond quickly to fluctuations in grid demand, paving the way for greater use of renewable resources such as wind and solar.

GE’s FlexEfficiency 50 plant is an integrated, highly efficient system that includes a number of key components – a next-generation 9FB Gas Turbine, a 109D-14 Steam Turbine that runs on the waste heat produced by the gas turbine, an advanced W28 Generator, a Mark* Vle control system that links all of the technologies and a heat recovery steam generator.

GE introduced its FlexEfficiency 50 plant earlier this year as the flagship product of its FlexEfficiency portfolio, which now includes three ecomagination-qualified power technologies, including the world’s first Integrated Renewables Combined-Cycle Power Plant and the FlexAero LM6000-PH. GE has since announced that Turkish project developer MetCap had selected the technology for the world’s first integrated renewables combined-cycle power plant, to be built in Karaman, Turkey. In addition, GE commercial partners Harbin Electric in China and Toshiba Electric in Japan also have announced plans to introduce the product.

GE has finalised the acquisition of Ireland-based FMC-Tech, a leading provider of smart grid technology equipment providing real-time power line monitoring capabilities. The acquisition, first announced in May, marks another milestone in both GE’s dedication to smart grid excellence and its commitment to smart grid development in the UK and Ireland.

FMC Tech comes to GE with utility experience and backing. ESB Networks has worked with the FMC-Tech team on pilot trials of their intelligent network sensors. According to ESB, the deployed system has proven to be highly effective in the areas of network monitoring and fault detection, delivering a significant reduction in outage duration.

“GE is committed to innovatively solving our customers’ toughest challenges with more efficient, reliable and sustainable energy solutions,” says Keith Redfearn, general manager – Digital Energy for GE Energy in Europe. “FMC-Tech solutions are at the forefront of a new wave of technologies allowing utilities to remain competitive and capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century grid.”

GE has also demonstrated its commitment to smart grid development in Ireland by supporting Smart Grid Ireland (SGI). SGI is a group of international and local businesses facilitated by the Center for Competitiveness, focused on articulating the benefits of smart grid to promote sustainability and economic growth throughout the region.

In March, GE’s Paddy Turnbull participated in SGI’s smart grid pilot proposal to Northern Ireland Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment Arlene Foster. The pilot would allow for a greater number of renewable energy sources such as wind, wave and solar energy to be connected to the existing electrical network – reducing carbon emissions and ensuring energy security and reliability.

GE has expanded its Wind Services portfolio in Europe to include Production Based Availability Guarantees (PBA) as an option for new and existing operations and maintenance contracts on all GE 1.5 and 2.5 megawatt series wind turbines. Available later this year, GE’s production guarantees have been designed with the goals of its customers in mind; ensuring that wind turbines are available during the high wind periods, which can be the most profitable for turbine owners.

GE’s installed base of 17,000 wind turbines has been an industry leader in availability over the last several years. In 2010, GE’s North American 1.5 megawatt wind turbines achieved 98.6% fleet-wide time-based availability, with a global average over 98%. Wind turbine availability is an important measurement of how well a wind farm is operating and is representative of the amount of time a turbine is able to produce power. 

GE’s PBA Guarantee takes into consideration availability, while at the same time balancing peak production on turbines wind farm-wide. While keeping time-based availability high will continue to be important, factoring in key performance trends gives GE’s wind services team a better perspective on how to best operate a site.

In addition, the performance formula employed by GE’s highly-trained technicians allows flexibility to intelligently schedule turbine maintenance. GE can tailor site services, such as routine maintenance, troubleshooting, and repair, based on owner/operator profitability goals.

GE has unveiled a first-of-its-kind power plant engineered to deliver an unprecedented combination of flexibility and efficiency. By rapidly ramping up and down in response to fluctuations in wind and solar power, the technology will enable the integration of more renewable resources into the power grid.

The FlexEfficiency 50 Combined Cycle1 Power Plant is rated at 510 megawatts and offers fuel efficiency greater than 61%. The plant is the result of an investment of more than $500 million in research and development by GE and a key part of its ongoing work to create and manufacture technologies around the globe that deliver cleaner, more efficient energy.

While power plants today can provide flexibility or high efficiency, this power plant will deliver an unprecedented combination of both. GE calls this combination of flexibility and efficiency ‘FlexEfficiency,’ which is essential if renewable power is going to cost-effectively integrate into power grids around the world on a large scale.

GE drew from the company’s jet engine expertise to engineer a plant that will ramp up at a rate of more than 50 megawatts per minute, twice the rate of today’s industry benchmarks. Operational flexibility at these levels will enable utilities to deliver power quickly when it is needed and to ramp down when it is not, balancing the grid cost-effectively and helping to deploy additional renewable power resources like wind and solar. A typical FlexEfficiency 50 plant will deliver enough energy to power more than 600,000 E.U. homes.

“As our customers seek to increase their use of renewable energy, the challenge of grid stability sharpens. They are under added pressure to achieve higher levels of efficiency and lower emissions for natural gas power plants. The FlexEfficiency 50 plant creates an immense growth opportunity in a new segment for our gas turbine technology and is in lock-step with our commitment to build a cleaner energy future,” says Paul Browning, vice president—thermal products for GE Power & Water. “For years we have been working to develop technology that can, in the same breath, deliver breakthrough efficiency and deal head-on with the challenge of grid variability caused by wind and solar. The need for combined flexibility and efficiency is even more pressing today as countries around the world establish new emissions standards.”

The FlexEfficiency 50 plant is the first product in GE’s new FlexEfficiency portfolio and part of GE’s ecomagination commitment to drive clean energy technology through innovation and R&D investment. The launch follows GE’s recent announcements of the world’s most efficient wind turbine, the highest reported efficiency for thin film solar and $11 billion in acquisitions that strengthen a portfolio supporting natural gas and power transmission.

The world’s urban and industrial water use is projected to double by 2050, yet one fifth of the world’s population, or some 1.2 billion people, already lives in areas of water scarcity. One of the best ways to stretch our planet’s dwindling supply of available water is through increased reuse and recycling, yet progress in these areas has been limited for a host of economic, political and social reasons.

One major stumbling block is a lack of effective incentives, according to a new white paper to be issued by GE. The paper describes the multifaceted nature of the problem and highlights various incentive policies and structures from around the world to illustrate those which have been effective in encouraging water reuse and recycling. GE will present the white paper at its Water Summit, From Used to Useful — Middle East, taking place on April 5-6 in Saudi Arabia.

“Our goal is to stimulate action to preserve fresh water supplies,” says Heiner Markhoff, president and chief executive of water and process technologies for GE Power & Water. “Cost-effective technologies already exist to solve virtually all water challenges, thus the focus needs to be placed on the human side of the equation. In that regard we see four main approaches: increased education and outreach so that people can see the need and the benefits; removal of bureaucratic and other barriers; effective use of mandates and regulations; and establishment of effective incentives, which is the focus of our latest white paper.”

GE’s ‘Creating Effective Incentives for Water Reuse and Recycling’ white paper discusses four possible policy options: water pricing/discharge fees, water quality and demand trading, tax financing/public grants and public-private partnerships. It says that regardless of the incentive type, experience shows that incentives are most effective when implemented within a regulatory structure that already exists and functions well. For example, Singapore’s goal is to use reclaimed water as a key part of its water supply. The island city-state merged several governmental units into a centralised Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, and it has been a major factor in helping the country realise a 30% water reuse rate.

Some of the specific incentive structures and approaches detailed in the white paper include:

* Water pricing/discharge fees: Raising the price of water is not always an option, but sometimes it can be used to reflect water scarcity or to incorporate external environmental costs. New York City offers one example where a reduction in the price for water, based on the volume consumed, can drive reuse. Buildings with a comprehensive water reuse system (CWRS) that meet water-usage targets are granted a 25% rate reduction on water and sewer charges, which can amount to millions of dollars in reduced operating costs for large users. A CWRS building captures, treats and recycles sanitary wastewater or wastewater from showers, clothes washers, etc.

* Water quality and demand trading: Water quality trading programs allow firms with high pollution-abatement costs to purchase pollution reduction credits from other firms or sources with lower abatement costs. Similar programs can be implemented with respect to water demand. For example, when a drought in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin in the 1980s reduced farmers’ water entitlements to 10-20% of normal, many quickly opted to trade the limited water allocations they received rather than attempt to plant a crop with insufficient resources.

* Tax financing/public grants: Governments can help improve the economics of investments in water reuse via incentives and financing using various tax credits, exemptions and grants. Noting the significant growth in the renewable energy sector over the past several years driven by production tax credit/investment tax credit programs, the white paper discusses in detail the many parallels and opportunities in the water sector.

* Public-private partnerships: Public water utilities still provide most water and wastewater services worldwide, but public-private partnerships (PPPs) are increasingly viewed as an effective means of stimulating investment in water reuse infrastructure. The number of people served by private companies grew from 51 million people in 1990 to nearly 300 million by 2002. Especially in areas such as the arid western United States, where new communities are cropping up in areas where basic water infrastructure does not yet exist, private operators often can provide the type of decentralized, ad hoc solutions necessary to meet such demand.

GE has introduced its 4.1-113 wind turbine, a four-megawatt class machine that is optimised for offshore use and is designed to bring a new level of reliability to the offshore wind industry. GE has signed a contract to supply a 4.1-113 wind turbine along with associated services to Goteborg Energi for installation in the Gothenburg harbour, Sweden in the second half of 2011. The project is supported by the Swedish Energy Agency through its technology programme, demonstrating its interest in leading offshore technology.

With fewer moving parts, the direct-drive technology provides a simple, reliable design with built-in redundancy and partial operation for major components, all focused on keeping turbines operating reliably at sea. The direct-drive technology eliminates costly gearbox parts, lowering operating expenses, and also relies on an innovative modular approach to maximize in-situ repair and reduce the need for large repair vessels. The 4.1-113 blade design is optimized to maximize energy capture.

“Our 4.1-113 wind turbine represents our most advanced technology. It is the only direct-drive wind turbine designed specifically for offshore today,” says Victor Abate, vice president-renewable energy for GE Power & Water.

The 4.1-113 design builds on the evolution of the 3.5MW direct-drive design, the industry’s most proven offshore direct-drive turbine, and benefits from GE’s experience of over 16,000 units installed onshore. The base design has been operating since 2005 on a coastal site in Norway in a harsh environment with high wind speed and high turbulence.

The project in Gothenburg harbour is part of GE’s offshore footprint European strategy, representing a Eur340 million investment in its offshore business.

GE has signed a ten year contract with Spanish wind developer Cobra Energia to provide advanced services for 178 GE wind turbines installed at eight wind farms across Spain. The agreement is GE’s largest wind energy services contract in Europe, and reinforces the company’s position in Europe’s highly competitive wind turbine services sector.

The agreement provides the flexibility for Cobra Energia to complete routine maintenance with GE contributing advanced solutions for advanced unplanned maintenance, troubleshooting, upgrades and parts. The GE service agreement covers Cobra Energia’s entire fleet of GE 1.5-megawatt wind turbines coming off warranty between 2010 and 2012.

A subsidiary of Spanish building company ACS, Cobra Energia operates some of the largest wind farms in Spain. Spain ranks among the world leaders in the use of renewable energy, including wind and solar.