GE Energy Storage - Energy Management for the Modern Age

General Electric's vision of Energy Storage:

"Access to cost-effective and reliable power is essential in today‘s world. For some users, access to highly reliable power that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is critical. Durathon Batteries are a safer, reliable and low maintenance technology that provide effective back-up power for users while saving them money on their energy bill.

In contrast to other backup applications, the Durathon Battery Energy Storage System can reduce a users’ energy bill while waiting for the grid to fail. Utilizing Durathon Battery’s superior cycle performance, the system reduces a user’s daily peak demand load by peak shaving, or smoothing out their energy consumption. For many users, demand response charges can be a significant component of their electricity costs and leveling energy loads across a day provides real savings. When the grid falters, Durathon Batteries are ready to provide hours of backup power supply.


For owners looking to integrate renewable sources into their building’s power supply or roll out electric vehicle charges, the Durathon Battery Energy Storage System is the ideal choice. Durathon Batteries have an extremely small footprint and require minimal maintenance, ensuring that the system is cost effective to install and operate. With the capability to be fully integrated into an existing building energy management system, Durathon Battery technology’s superior storage capability helps ensure renewable power supply is balanced with building loads, and congestion and peak demands caused by excess EV charging are decreased.

Micro-Grids
Micro-grids, whether located on a true geographical island or simply isolated within a building complex, present unique energy challenges such as high diesel costs, renewable integration or the need for black-start capability. For such applications, Durathon Batteries provide smart energy management options to maximize efficiency and lower costs.

Due to the lack of alternate energy sources, micro-grid operators often rely heavily on diesel generators, despite expensive operating costs and slow response times. Most generators are not run at maximum efficiency, which leads to cost and maintenance issues. By using Durathon Battery’s superior cycling capacity in hybrid mode, it is possible to increase the fuel efficiency of the micro-grid by up to 40%, reducing costs and resource usage through better management of fuel deliveries. Durathon Battery technology also provides backup power and black-start capability to get the micro-grid back up and running if the generator fails.

Durathon Batteries’ scalable design means more modules can be added to the micro-grid for renewable integration. Its high-energy capacity also ensures that renewable power is used effectively and efficiently."



Source: GE Energy Storage

GE Acquires LED Lighting Startup Albeo Technologies

GE buys Albeo to strengthen its position in the growing market for industrial LEDs.

General Electric Lighting has signed an agreement to acquire the Boulder startup Albeo Technologies.

The purchase will help GE boost its ability to offer all-LED solutions to customers, especially in the area of industrial lighting. “This acquisition is a big boost for GE customers moving aggressively toward an all-LED building envelope in new construction and retrofits, including retail, commercial and industrial high-bay applications,” Maryrose Sylvester, president and CEO, GE Lighting, said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Albeo raised $8 million in a series C funding round. Albeo saw a 50-percent increase in revenue in 2011. Commercial and industrial sectors are moving more quickly toward LEDs than other sectors, with a significant increase in sales for many players in the market.

For cold storage and data centers, in particular, the payback is usually less than two years. Albeo works in one of the world’s ten largest data centers to provide an all-LED solution.

"Some of our biggest customers told us they wanted a GE-quality solution for high bay,” said Sylvester. “This acquisition accelerates our development of cutting-edge technologies that brings customers the energy-efficient solutions they need. That’s what customers get at the end of the day -- a refined, highly modular and scalable platform that delivers the GE quality they’ve come to expect.”

For Albeo, the move to become part of GE allows it access to GE’s worldwide paths to market and huge research and development capabilities.

The announcement comes at the same time GE released a report on the “Industrial Internet,” which is essentially the networking of industrial machines, could add $10 trillion to $15 trillion to global GDP.

Lighting is a perfect example. In commercial buildings, lighting gobbles up 35 percent to 40 percent of electricity. With LEDs and controls, that figure can be vastly reduced. The savings are so great that, although cold storage and data centers have been early adopters, large office spaces and various other types of manufacturing and commercial operations are investigating LEDs.

A 2010 Enterprise LED Lighting report from Groom Energy and GTM Research also found that the market for LEDs in parking garages should start to mature going into 2012. "GE is making a statement that they need to broaden their product offering faster, and Albeo fits into a category where they didn't have a competitive LED product [in the] high bay [category]," said Jon Guerster, CEO of Groom Energy Solutions and the report author. "This is an early industry, developing at a rapid pace, and consolidation is to be expected."

Outside of commercial and industrial applications, the interest is still nascent. There will be some groundwork laid in 2012, but GTM Research and Groom Energy see the period of 2013 to 2015 as the breakout years for those markets.

Earlier this year, Jeff Bisberg, CEO of Albeo, told Greentech Media that the LED market was wide and there would be a lot of winners. For Albeo, the market just got a whole lot bigger.

While there will likely be more consolidation in the fixture market, Guerster said to keep an eye out for large incumbents, like GE, acquiring an LED chip company. "That would be a much bigger statement about how serious they are about the LED lighting market."


Source: GreenTech Media