GE’s Latest Central Inverter Technology Clears Path for Utilities to Boost Solar Energy Production Worldwide

Press release:

30 July 2012

GE’s Latest Central Inverter Technology Clears Path for Utilities to Boost Solar Energy Production Worldwide

• GE’s ProSolar Inverter Allows BELECTRIC’s New Solar Station in Germany to Efficiently Convert and Deliver Renewable Electricity to Grid
• ProSolar System Plays Key Role in 1st Solar Power Station Rated at 1,500 Volts

PARIS—July 30, 2012—Marking a new technology milestone in the global effort to increase renewable energy production by driving down overall system costs, GE (NYSE: GE) has deployed the first 1,500-VDC (volts, DC current) open circuit (OC) central inverter for utility scale solar power plants. The inverter will help reduce overall system costs, which is vital to making solar power a more economical alternative to fossil fuel technologies.

Central inverters are key components of photovoltaic (PV) plants. The technology converts DC power produced by solar panels to AC power, which is then fed into the main grid.

GE Energy’s Power Conversion business developed, built and delivered its 1,500-VDC ProSolar central inverter technology to solar power plant system integrator BELECTRIC, the global market leader in terms of installed power. BELECTRIC installed GE’s advanced central inverter at its new solar power plant in southern Germany, utilizing PADCON’s 1500 VDC System Technology.

“GE’s ProSolar central inverter system is designed to help efficiently stabilize the power grid with defined active and reactive power around the clock. This is extremely important when it comes to countering the intermittent availability of solar energy,” said Bernhard Beck, CEO of BELECTRIC.

The 1,500-VDC OC central inverter for BELECTRIC is designed as an outdoor version and offers a number of key benefits. Most notably, it allows operation at high DC voltages on panel level with lower DC currents while increasing the rated power for inverters. This can result in significantly lower costs for the technical DC infrastructure as well as the overall balance of system costs. Since the power of the inverter system is limited mainly by the current, the power can be substantially increased by increasing the operating voltage, and this means additional cost savings.

Due to higher operating DC voltage and higher output with the same size as conventional ProSolar 1,000-VDC OC inverter units, the 1,500-VDC OC solution offers higher power density with the same small footprint that means optimized and flexible site layout. The liquid-cooled and improved power electronic topology ensures high efficiency, especially in partial load operations and is developed in Berlin.

GE Energy’s inverter technology has a long track record of extremely high reliability resulting from the company’s experience in the development of frequency converters for the wind energy, oil and gas as well as metals sectors and other industrial applications.

“Our inverter rated at 1,500 volts is an important breakthrough in efforts to achieve grid parity with photovoltaic systems in certain countries. GE offers customers with technology options to support renewable energy policies and push projects that build long-term energy security using solar energy,” said Georg Möhlenkamp, global product leadership manager for GE Energy Management’s Power Conversion business. “Reducing the costs of solar electricity generation through continuous innovation forms the basis for GE Energy’s long-term technology development strategy.”

By offering its solar inverter technology as part of its broad portfolio of products and solutions, GE Energy is supporting ongoing energy policy changes in Germany, which plans to increase the share of renewable energies to 35 percent of total power demand by the year 2020. By deploying the ProSolar central solar inverter to help reduce the costs of solar power generation, PV projects will become an increasingly economical alternative to fossil fuel technologies.

GE Energy acquired Power Conversion (then known as Converteam) in September 2011. GE Energy’s Power Conversion business applies the science and systems of power conversion to help drive the electric transformation of the world’s energy infrastructure. Designing and delivering advanced motor, drive and control technologies that evolve today’s industrial processes for a cleaner, more productive future. It serves specialized sectors such as energy, marine, industry and all related services. To learn more, please visit: www.ge-energy.com/electrifyingchange.

About GE

GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering, moving and curing the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.

GE Energy works connecting people and ideas everywhere to create advanced technologies for powering a cleaner, more productive world. With more than 100,000 employees in over 100 countries, our diverse portfolio of product and service solutions and deep industry expertise help our customers solve their challenges locally. We serve the energy sector with technologies in such areas as natural gas, oil, coal and nuclear energy; wind, solar, biogas and water processing; energy management; and grid modernization. We also offer integrated solutions to serve energy- and water-intensive industries such as mining, metals, marine, petrochemical, food & beverage and unconventional fuels.

Follow GE Energy on Twitter @GE_Energy.

Grassley on the President’s Visit to Iowa on Wind Energy

For Immediate Release
May 23, 2012

Grassley on the President’s Visit to Iowa on Wind Energy

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa authored and won enactment of the first-ever wind energy production tax credit in 1992.  The incentive was designed to give wind energy the ability to compete against coal-fired and nuclear energy and helped to launch the wind energy industry.  He has worked to extend the credit ever since.  He made the following comment on President Obama’s visit to Iowa on wind energy this week.

“I’m glad the President likes Iowa but his visit won’t have much to do with getting the wind energy tax credit extended.  He could travel down the street from the White House to the Capitol and talk to the congressional leadership instead, especially in the Senate, controlled by his party.  It was surprising to read in the paper this week that he hasn’t talked to key committee chairmen in his own party in months.  Maybe the lack of communication is why the President and the Senate Democrats let the biodiesel tax credit expire at the end of 2011 and made that industry suffer from uncertain tax policy.

“There’s strong bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate for extending the wind energy tax credit.   I introduced a bill with bipartisan co-sponsors in March, for example.  The provision is hung up in the lack of a way forward on dozens of expiring tax provisions.  The President could exert his leadership by working with Congress on a way forward instead of calling for a provision that’s a no-brainer for many of us.  He’s focusing on the easy part of a bigger task.  The stakes for the wind industry and the country in general will only get worse with delay.    It’s time to act, not politick.”

Information on Grassley’s bipartisan bill to extend the wind energy tax credit is availablehere.

Over $12 Million to Spur Solar Energy Innovation

News release from the Department of Energy:

Energy Department Announces Over $12 Million to Spur Solar Energy Innovation

February 8, 2012 - 1:53pm

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As part of the Obama Administration’s blueprint for an American economy built to last, today U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced over $12 million to speed solar energy innovation from the lab to the marketplace through the Energy Department’s SunShot Incubator program. The funding will accelerate American innovation in solar energy and manufacturing by supporting advancements in hardware, reductions in soft costs, and the development of pilot manufacturing and production projects.

“Investments in American energy and manufacturing are critical building blocks for an American economy built to last,” said Secretary Chu. “The SunShot Incubator program fosters the innovative small businesses that will rapidly bring technological advances to market and pioneer a new era in American energy.”

The SunShot Incubator program helps launch new startups and business units within existing companies to accelerate the innovative solar technology development. Since 2007, DOE has invested $60 million through the Incubator in promising technologies as they are brought from the lab to the marketplace. These investments have catalyzed $1.6 billion in private sector support. The federal investment in these projects has been leveraged at a rate of more than 26-to-1.

The funding opportunity announced today builds on the SunShot Incubator program’s history of successful partnerships. Nearly forty companies have participated in the Incubator, including Colorado-based PrimeStar. In 2007, DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and PrimeStar Solar announced a cooperative R&D agreement to transition NREL’s cadmium telluride solar technology to commercial production. PrimeStar also received a $3 million Incubator award that year to commercialize its highly-efficient, low-cost photovoltaic solar panels based on the technology pioneered by NREL. Today, PrimeStar is owned by GE, which has announced a $600 million investment in the company and the construction of a large-scale manufacturing plant in Colorado that will employ more than 350 American workers to produce state-of-the-art solar panels. Through the Department’s SunShot Incubator program, these types of investments help early-stage companies overcome barriers to bring innovative solar technologies to market faster.

Today’s SunShot Incubator funding will support innovations in the development of hardware and non-hardware approaches from the proof-of-concept stage to prototype demonstration, including advances in photovoltaics, concentrating solar power and power electronics, as well as streamlined permitting, inspection and financing approaches, and to shorten the timeline for awardees to transition innovative prototypes produced at lab-scale into pilot and eventually full-scale manufacturing, production, or deployment. Each of the investments will require significant cost-share commitments from the awardees.

Applications are due on April 9, 2012. For more information and application requirements for the Funding Opportunity Announcement, please visit the Funding Opportunity Exchange website.

Launched in February 2011, DOE’s SunShot Initiative funds competitive research to make solar energy systems faster, easier, and cheaper for America’s homeowners, businesses and utilities to generate clean, renewable energy. The collaborative national effort aims to make solar energy cost competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade. Achieving this goal will drive widespread adoption of solar energy technologies, fortify the U.S. leadership in the global clean energy race, spur new industries, and create jobs across the nation. For more information, visit the SunShot Initiative website.

DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy accelerates development and facilitates deployment of energy efficiency and renewable technologies and market-based solutions that strengthen U.S. energy security, environmental quality, and economic vitality.