Ok, so on the heels of Time Warner’s spinoff of AOL.com; maybe similar moves by General Electric is only wishful thinking than again maybe not given its history of spinoffs.
Just last week, GE made headlines with its new development
of smart grid technologies, which it predicts will generate $4 billion
in revenues.
Additionally, the GE Energy Infrastructure business unit operating
in 140 countries collected $38.6 billion in revenue in 2008. It led all
other GE business segments in 2008, posting 26% profit growth.
The GE Energy businesses run a wide
range of industrial goods, from water desalination systems, to oil and
gas drilling equipment, to the multi-ton turbines that use wind or
natural gas to generate electricity. Global demand for electricity and
clean water is expected to double over the next 15 years worldwide.
GE just announced it is adding a new business unit that will
develop and produce sodium battery technology. Sodium-based batteries
offering higher energy density and more storage.
In addition to hybrid vehicles, the batteries will be useful
as backup power supplies for cell phone towers and data centers, and
there will be applications in the rail, mining and marine industries.
The new business unit adds to GE’s battery portfolio after
it recently bought A123, a lithium battery company. GE has invested
more than $150 million in the technology. A production plant will be
based near GE’s Global Research Center in Niskayuna, N.Y. GE expects
that sodium batteries will generate $500 million in company sales by
2015.
The sodium battery facility will add to its large “green
collar” workforce. For example in the state of New York alone, GE is
involved with several nanotechnology, semiconductors, superconductive
cables and wind projects.
Revenue from sales of GE’s Ecomagination products
is rising to the tune of 21% a year, now reaching $17 billion in sales.
The company has boosted its portfolio of ecomagination products and
services by one-third, to 80.
Expect more ecomagination products on the horizon, because
GE gave a 27 percent boost to its investment in the research and
development of clean tech solutions. It spent $1.4 billion on this area
in 2008. The company expects to add another $100 million annually by
2010.
Within its own operations, GE has reduced its absolute GHG
emissions 13 percent and improved energy efficiency 37 percent since
2005.
GE achieved lower GHG emissions by migrating to less
GHG-intensive fuels, utilizing its own ecomagination technology such as
solar panels, advanced lighting products and Jenbacher engines,
improving the energy efficiency of its production operations, and
integrating GHG as a facility management objective.
We are seeing a significant increase in the preparation of
GE management and product innovations from the high growth Energy,
Smart Grid and Ecomagination Groups which makes sense long-term in its
ability to grow even more competitive as separate focused and
financially nimble spinoff companies.
Disclosure: The author at the time of writing this article had no significant direct interests in the companies listed.
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