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The GE Brief — October 1, 2019

October 01, 2019
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October 1, 2019


 

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DOGGER DETERMINATION


There’s a large shallow patch in the North Sea that might once have formed a land bridge between the U.K. and continental Europe — only to have disappeared under water some 7,000 years ago, when the melting glaciers of the last ice age caused the seas to rise. Now a massive new project slated for the area might help prevent the seas from rising even further: Dogger Bank, as the shallow patch is called, will soon be home to three huge wind farms powered by GE’s Haliade-X platform, the family of the world’s most powerful offshore wind turbines. The world’s largest wind installation, Dogger Bank will boast a combined capacity reaching 3.6 gigawatts — enough to supply 4.5 million homes in the U.K. and meet about 5% of the country’s energy demand.

Watt to expect: “We are very excited to announce this agreement, as it gives us the opportunity to bring the world’s most powerful offshore wind turbine to the world’s largest offshore wind market,” said John Lavelle, CEO and vice president of GE Renewable Energy’s Offshore Wind unit. With a rotor diameter twice the length of a soccer pitch, the Haliade-X is so powerful that just one of the machines can provide enough renewable energy to power 16,000 European households and save an annual 42 million metric tons of CO2 — the equivalent emissions of 9,000 vehicles in a year. The Dogger Bank deal comes on the heels of another big announcement from GE Renewable Energy: The Haliade-X was also chosen to supply two big new wind installations off the U.S. East Coast.

The wind farms at Dogger Bank are expected to be commissioned between 2023 and 2025. Learn more here.

 

CULP’S FIRST YEAR AT THE HELM


H. Lawrence Culp Jr. joined GE as chairman and CEO one year ago — as good a reason as any to take stock of the company’s progress and, more importantly, to look ahead to what’s in store. To mark the anniversary, Culp chatted with Steve Winoker, GE’s vice president of investor communications, about where things stand with respect to the goals Culp established as he took the helm at the company. Culp has described 2019 as a “reset year” for GE, in which the company is focusing on two concrete priorities: improving its financial position and strengthening its businesses. “We’ve started,” Culp said. “But there’s a lot more work to do.”

Industrial-strength company: While challenges remain, Culp celebrated bright spots across GE’s businesses, from breakthrough innovations in its jet engines to progress commercializing new products like the Haliade-X in GE Renewable Energy. (See above.) The operational transformation playing out at GE under his watch, Culp said, also encompasses a cultural transformation. “Putting the good and the bad on the table in equal measure is not always easy, but it is critically important,” Culp said. “What we are doing now is changing the conversation.”

There’s more on the horizon: Culp will join Winoker again on Oct. 30, when GE releases its third-quarter earnings. In the meantime, click here to read his first-anniversary conversation.

 

HYDROPOWER HACKATHON


Water, water everywhere — what if it could be used to solve some of the world’s pressing energy challenges? That was the talk of the town in Montreal last week at WaterPower Canada, a large industry conference that attracted big hydropower players like Hydro-Quebec as well as equipment makers and service providers like GE Renewable Energy. Rather than set up a standard booth at the event, though, GE Renewable Energy went about its business a little differently: The company invited 25 students from Canadian institutions of higher learning and 25 employees to participate in a two-day hackathon. The goal of the event? Finding fresh innovations to bring to the industry.

Ideas bubbling up: “As engineers, we are often stuck in our ways trying to solve problems,” said Pascal Radue, president and CEO of GE Renewable Energy’s Hydro Solutions unit. “We wanted to create an environment where new ideas could arise from the mix of our employees’ deep knowledge of our mature technology and the students’ understanding of the new world we live in.” Divided into seven teams, the employees and students were tasked with coming up with novel concepts for using data to develop new services, designing disruptive business models via new partnerships, and harnessing emerging technologies such as augmented reality and 3D printing. The big winner was the Yellow Submarine: a football-sized autonomous swimming robot that uses ultrasound to inspect hydropower turbines for damage.

The students pitched their concepts to a panel of hydro industry experts — like “Shark Tank,” but with even more water. Learn more here.

 

COOLEST THINGS ON EARTH ?


 

1. Artificial Skin So Soft

A new artificial skin, made of silicone and electrodes and developed by scientists at Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, replicates the sense of touch and can adapt to the movements of whoever’s wearing it.

 

2. Seeking Cancer’s Extinction

A rare element linked with the meteorite that killed the dinosaurs is the key ingredient in a new cancer-fighting compound developed by researchers at the U.K.’s University of Warwick.

 

3. Clearer Image

Scientists at MIT and the Broad Institute devised a new way to quickly image synaptic proteins — crucial links in the brain’s wiring that could shed light on conditions including autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease.

 

Read more about this week’s Coolest Things on Earth here.

 

— QUOTE OF THE DAY — 


 


“As an industry, sometimes we need to bring in people from different walks of life and give us a nudge to innovate and put the industry back on the map where it belongs.”


Pascal Radue, president and CEO of GE Renewable Energy’s Hydro Solutions unit




Quote: GE Reports. Image: GE Renewable Energy.

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