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Powered by Trash: Landfill Gas Engines Power Santiago

ecomagination staff | Tue May 1 2012 | 0

A landfill that takes more than half of the garbage from Santiago, Chile, will provide power to 75,000 homes with the help of GE’s ecomagination-approved gas engines.

GE will supply 8.4 megawatts of landfill-gas-to-energy power with six J420 Jenbacher specialty gas engines at the Loma Los Colorados landfill, which takes about 60 percent of the capital city’s solid waste. The Jenbacher engines will add to the roughly 10 MW of capacity from seven GE Jenbacher engines already at the site.

The engines are expected to come online by 2012 and 2014 and GE will also provide a master engine control system to maximize engine availability. The landfill project comes in addition to a deal to provide three J620 Jenbacher engines to Chilean water utility Aguas Andinas’ wastewater treatment plant expansion and renewable energy project along the Mapocho River.

Read more at Waste Management World.

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Tokyo

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GEnx Engine Powers Milestone Dreamliner Flight

ecomagination staff | Mon Apr 23 2012 | 0

The ecomagination-qualified GEnx engine notched another success on Sunday when it powered the first flight of Japan Airlines’ Boeing 787 Dreamliner to a landing in Boston. JAL recently took possession of the GEnx-equipped aircraft and has started the first nonstop route between Boston and Asia.

The GEnx engine has already set round-the-world distance and speed records in its class. Its ability to burn fuel more efficiently and with fewer CO2 emissions have made it a standard bearer for the ecomagination portfolio. The engine’s lightweight fan blades and case are made from space-age composite materials that reduce its weight by 400 pounds per engine.

Sunday was also the first revenue-generating flight of the GEnx-1B engine but it will soon become the workhorse of the long-haul fleet: the GEnx is the bestselling engine in GE’s history, with 1,300 engines on order.

See GE Reports for more.

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Powered by ecomagination, GE Tops List of Climate Innovators

ecomagination staff | Mon Apr 23 2012 | 0

GE has once again topped a closely watched ranking of 360 companies in the areas of “climate management” and clean tech innovation, largely because of its investments in the ecomagination portfolio. GE has topped the list every year since it was first released three years ago.

The risk analysis firm Maplecroft creates the Climate Innovation Indexes (CIIs) to show investors which companies are most resilient and innovative. The analysis ranks 360 of the largest US companies by measuring 100 criteria, such as technologies to combat climate change, emissions reduction and adaptation to severe weather events.

“You need to be in deep to sustainability to be relevant and if you’re not, you’re missing massive markets,” Mark Vachon, vice president of GE’s ecomagination business strategy, told the publication BusinessGreen.

Maplecroft singled out GE for having invested $5 billion in cleantech R&D over five years. The consultancy also recognized GE’s smart-grid technologies, wind turbines and waste-to-value solutions.

See the Maplecroft release.

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Mark Vachon

Mark Vachon on Escaping the False Choice Between Green and Growth

ecomagination staff | Fri Apr 20 2012 | 0

Sustainability is a successful business practice: That’s the message that Mark Vachon, vice president, GE ecomagination, brought to “GW Moving the Planet Forward,” a conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

Vachon told attendees that people have been presented with a false choice between a great environment and great economics. The success of the ecomagination portfolio, which has generated $106 billion in revenue for GE, is proof of that.

Vachon dug a bit deeper into his message in this chat with Planet Forward after the meeting.

GE Vachon Interview from Center for Innovative Media on Vimeo.

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Los Angeles

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Wal-Mart: The Green Business Partner?

ecomagination staff | Tue Apr 17 2012 |

When Stonyfield Farms CEO Gary Hirshberg started selling to Wal-Mart, critics had some harsh words for him, according to a report on CNN Money.

They said “‘This is the devil.’ But this is the angel in my world,” Hirshberg told the audience at Fortune’s Brainstorm Green conference on Tuesday. That’s because giant retailers and big companies have become critical partners in the world of their smaller counterparts. As Wal-Mart has embraced sustainability, a company once considered “evil,” has become an ally in getting good products to larger markets.

But, as Wal-Mart Chief Marketing Officer Duncan Mac Naughton noted, it can be easier to promote sustainability within your company than to get customers to buy into it.

Read more about sustainable shopping at CNNMoney.

Top image: Courtesy Stonyfield Farms

 

nasdaq

A New Spring for Greentech?

ecomagination staff | Tue Apr 10 2012 | 0

It’s going to be a green spring in a whole lot of ways. Four greentech companies will be issuing initial public offerings within the next few months. The companies, which include solid-waste-to-fuel company Enerkem, concentrated solar power (CSP) developer BrightSource, photovoltaic solar microinverter company Enphase and Luca Technologies, aren’t big moneymakers right now but all have promising business plans and trajectories.

Greentech faces many hurdles in the market: the looming “valley of death,” the term for the path from working technology to profitability; an uncertain regulatory environment, and; a skeptical public that wants to be sold, again and again, on the value of sustainability. Each IPO, it seems, is a referendum on how the market feels about greentech’s ability to meet these challenges.

Read more about the IPOs at Greentech Media.

Top image: Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

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London

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Hirst Sees Home Development as Canvas for Eco Work of Art

Elizabeth Wood | Tue Feb 21 2012 | 0

Damien Hirst—noted as Britain’s richest living artist—is perhaps best known for his provocative and at times controversial art. The respected artist is turning his creative tendencies to funding and designing a home development in the city of Ilfracombe.

Five hundred homes will be built on the land, much of which is owned by Hirst himself. The homes are outfitted with wind turbines and solar panels—hidden inside the roof. Focus will also be placed on natural light and efficient insulation.

Read more about the development at Smart Planet.

Photo from Flickr by Sebastian Niedlich.

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Washington DC

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Department of Labor Publishes Green Jobs Guide for Women

Elizabeth Wood | Fri Feb 17 2012 | 0

The ecologically centered, “green” job market is not a boys’ club, at least according to the U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau. The organization released a green jobs guide entitled “Why Green is Your Color: A Woman’s Guide to a Sustainable Career.”

We have reported on women in the cleantech industry with a story featuring five women who are making a name for themselves in the sustainability community. Katherine Lucey of Solar Sister, an organization committed to empowering African women with new careers based on clean energy, gave more insight into what makes women especially suited for the burgeoning green job market.

Read more about the new green guide on the Huffington Post.

Photo from Flickr by Josh Koonce.

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Washington DC

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Gore Outlines “Sustainable Capitalism”

Elizabeth Wood | Thu Feb 16 2012 | 0

Al Gore has long rallied for environmental causes at the policy level. As the former Vice President for the U.S., he has positioned himself as one of the most outspoken advocates for eco-awareness and action.

Along with David Blood of Generation Investment Management LLP, he outlined an actionable policy plan called “A Manifesto for Sustainable Capitalism.” The plan is meant to serve as a solution to problems within the oil industry, which he likens to subprime mortgages and the economic crisis they created.

In the plan, Gore and Blood credit sustainable capitalism with the ability to “help companies save money by reducing waste and increasing energy efficiency in the supply chain, and by improving human-capital practices so that retention rates rise and the costs of training new employees decline.”

Read more at Inhabitat.

Photo from Flickr by JD Lasica.

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Tokyo

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Solar Goes Big in Japan

Elizabeth Wood | Wed Feb 15 2012 | 0

While Japan once dominated the global market in solar photovoltaic panel production, they have fallen behind producers like China and the United States in recent years. However, renewable energy sources are making steps forward in the country thanks to government incentives.

Already on the rise, the market for solar-powered generation systems is expected to grow considerably—as much as 263.2 percent by 2020. A new tariff strategy outlined on the Japan for Sustainability website will further encourage—and in some cases enforce—a reliance on clean energy production.

Read more at CleanTechnica.

Photo from Flickr by James Justin.

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