GE Audio & Video: Podcasts, Stream GE, On Demand
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[ [Beth Comstock - Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer GE] The challenge ]
[was designed to say, "Hey, we don't have all the best ideas."]
[We found that a company like GE actually can play a role, a convening role,]
[can help kind of make these ideas come forward. ]
[[Jeffrey Immelt - Chairman & CEO GE] We've just decided to focus on digital energy, ]
[what people call smart grid because we viewed it as a place ]
[where a lot of innovation could take place, as a commercial reality.]
[Between GE and our venture capital partners, we're going to make 12 investments]
[of roughly $55 million, $45 million from GE and $10 million from our venture capital partners. ]
[We're giving 5 innovation grants of $100,000 each.]
[[Beth Comstock] And the first one is IceCode, and IceCode has developed ]
[an anti-icing technology for wind turbines.]
[Capstone Metering--this is about water, but it's about making water more intelligent, ]
[making intelligent water meters and have the water actually power the meters. ]
[Electric Root--and they develop secure communications for the smart grid,]
[while removing the need for duplicate sensors and costly copper wires.]
[WindFlex--and this is a very innovative idea. ]
[They produce rotors and turbines from light cloth. ]
[GridON--GridON's technology controls power quality in the grid.]
[[Yoram Valent - CEO - GridON] We're actually putting a hard core device in the grid.]
[It's something that GE--if you look at the history--doing transformers,]
[doing different types of equipment which are related, ]
[it's very--it's in the genes of GE. ]
[[?] This morning's conversation, it seems to me, ]
[[Per Olofsson - CEO ClimateWell] What I like about this challenge is the hybrid approach,]
[with GE being the industrial infrastructure, the market leader, ]
[together with the venture capital companies. ]
[[Steve Vassallo - General Partner, Foundation Capital] The role of venture capital]
[is to take great ideas and turn them into great companies. ]
[[Thomas Noonan - CEO, JouleX] I really applaud GE for crowd sourcing ]
[in real life, this idea of a innovation jam. ]
[[Chuck McDermott - General Partner, Rockport Capital Partners] That innovation part]
[of the ecosystem for the smart grid is terribly, terribly important. ]
[[Jeffrey Immelt] So in the end, these companies have as good a chance ]
[to be successful with this kind of backing, and that's what we can bring. ]
