Beijing to expand wind-power capacity
BLOWN AWAY IN CHINA

GE sees sales rise
General Electric Co., the world’s second-largest company, said sales in China may rise 20 percent this year as government policies to curb pollution spur demand for cleaner engines and power stations.
       Sales may climb to more than $6 billion in China, Jeffrey Immelt, chief executive officer of Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE, said at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Monday. Revenue in the world’s fastest-growing major economy has surged fivefold since 2001.
       “Our business could double again in China in the next four or five years,” Immelt said after signing an agreement to help China meet environmental targets.
       Immelt is tapping China, which has six of the world’s 10 most polluted cities, to expand sales of products such as wind turbines and fuel-efficient locomotives that cut emissions. China will spend 1.5 trillion yuan ($186 billion) in the next 15 years to increase renewable energy use to 15 percent of total supply, the government said in November.
       GE’s clean technology agreement with China covers conversion of coal to gas, wind energy, jet engines that have lower emissions and use less fuel, power-efficient railway locomotives and water desalination. GE gave no financial details of the accord with the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s main economic planning body.

Agreements to boost China’s energy efficiency
       GE will also invest up to $50 million in “eco-related” energy-related research and development at its Shanghai Technology Center over the next five years. It will provide management and leadership training to as many as 2,500 Chinese managers and officials over the next five years, GE said.
       “This focus is particularly appropriate in China due to its significant energy requirements and serious challenges regarding availability of natural resources,” GE said in the statement.
       The announcement of GE’s accord with the commission came as Japan, the third-biggest energy user, said it signed an agreement in Tokyo to help China boost energy efficiency. The countries signed five agreements covering information exchange, training and equipment supply, Japan’s Trade Ministry said in a statement.
       GE’s wind-turbine business in China is likely to be worth as much as $500 million in revenue within five years, Immelt told reporters. The company’s total global sales may rise 10 percent this year, he said.

Hiked sales of eco-friendly power products
GE, the world’s largest producer of turbines for power plants, is ahead of plans to sell $20 billion worth of environmentally friendly products annually by 2010, the company said on May 17. Immelt set the sales goal last year.
       Sales of so-called “green” products such as wind turbines and fuel-efficient locomotives rose 63 percent to $10.1 billion last year, and orders almost doubled to $17 billion, GE said. GE almost doubled the number of products it says are less harmful to the environment to 30 in 2005 from 17 a year earlier amid record oil prices.
       GE’s spending on the development of “cleaner technologies” amounted to $700 million in 2005, almost half of Immelt’s annual goal of $1.5 billion by 2010, the company said May 17. Products under development include turbines that run on methane gas.
       China’s push for renewable energy has created opportunities for GE and companies like Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which said in February the nation may become its largest market for wind generation projects. BP Plc, the world’s third-biggest maker of solar cells, said earlier this month its Asian sales may grow 50 percent a year by 2016, from a maximum of 30 percent now, partly because of increased demand from China.

Higher expectations from developing economies
GE’S revenue from developing economies, including China and nations in the Middle East, may double to $50 billion by 2010, Immelt said April 26. GE last year said it expects to double sales from units that make wind turbines, treat water and reduce greenhouse gases by the end of the decade.
       New products include equipment that turns coal into gas to reduce pollution by power plants. Sales of that equipment should reach $1 billion annually by 2008, with the potential for $75 billion over 10 years starting in 2010, Immelt said on April 26.
       All of GE’s energy-related divisions are expanding, driven by alternative sources such as wind turbines, John Krenicki, chief executive officer of GE Energy, said in an April 5 interview.
       Some analysts expect GE to benefit from environmental concerns about burning fossil fuels, along with rising prices for oil and natural gas.

Push for alternative energy to benefit GE
“THE global push to reduce fossil fuel-derived electricity with alternatives such as wind, solar, coal gasification and nuclear power should benefit GE,” New York-based Citigroup analyst Jeffrey Sprague wrote in a March note.
       The World Bank says six of the world’s 10 most-polluted cities are in China and estimates environmental damage and health problems cost the world’s fastest-growing major economy more than $54 billion a year.
       General Electric is the world’s second-biggest company by market value, behind Exxon Mobil Corp.
       China received the first shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG), a cleaner-burning alternative to the coal that powers as much as 70 percent of the nation’s energy needs, from Australia’s North West Shelf last week. The North West Shelf Venture will supply China more than 3.3 million metric tons, or 50 cargoes, of LNG annually under a 25-year, A$25-billion ($18-billion) agreement.
       China aims to cut the amount of energy used to produce each unit of GDP by 20 percent in five years, and aims to cut the discharge of major pollutants by a 10th in the five years through 2010, Premier Wen Jiabao said in March. Bloomberg