General Electric Co.'s energy investment business, buoyed by rising demand
for alternative power, said yesterday it will increase its investment in
renewable energy by 50 per cent, to $6-billion (U.S.) by 2010.
Alex Urquhart, president and chief executive officer of GE Energy Financial
Services, cited record-high oil prices, an increased focus on environmental
protection and improved technology for boosting interest in wind, solar,
biomass, hydro and geothermal power.
In addition, large price spikes fade with the elimination of fossil fuels as an
energy source, said Kevin Walsh, managing director and leader of renewable
energy at GE Energy.
"There are no fuel costs with wind and solar, no volatility," he said.
GE Energy, based in Stamford, Conn., set a $4-billion target for 2010 last May,
but recently crossed the $3-billion threshold, Mr. Urquhart said.
"We looked at the total activities and how many of these projects are coming
along. We realized, $4-billion, we'd be there much sooner than we thought," he
said.
The most active investment in renewable energy for GE Energy is wind,
representing about two-thirds of its portfolio, Mr. Urquhart said. The company's
also invested in landfill gas-to-energy projects, solar power projects in
California, a solar power plant in Portugal and other deals.
GE Energy also said yesterday it's investing in wind farm projects owned by
Horizon Wind Energy LLC, a Houston-based developer that is a subsidiary of
Energias de Portugal SA. The wind farms are in Illinois, Minnesota, Oregon and
Texas.
The four wind farms will annually produce enough electricity to power more than
180,200 average homes in the United States and will avoid nearly 1.4 million
tonnes a year in greenhouse gas emissions, compared with equivalent fossil fuel
generation, GE Energy said.
With the Horizon deal, GE Energy has invested or committed to invest equity in
85 wind farms and increased its global wind equity holdings to more than 3,600
megawatts of generating capacity.
GE Energy Financial Services is part of GE's infrastructure segment, which is
the Fairfield, Conn.-based conglomerate's largest business. The infrastructure
business brought in $40.5-billion in revenue in 2007, through Sept. 30, up by
more than 20 per cent from the same nine months in 2006.
GENERAL ELECTRIC (GE)
Close: $35.46, up 29¢
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By the numbers
$100-billion
Investment in renewable energy is expected to exceed this amount in 2007.
$66-billion
Estimated investment in new
renewable capacity in 2007.
237
Estimated amount of energy, in gigawats (GW), produced by
renewable energy in 2007.
182
Gigawats of renewable energy produced in 2005.
Source: Renewable Energy Policy Network