POWER September 2013 - 66

POWER VIEW
Hints of What's Next from
GE on the Technology Front
The global giant has plans for everything from improved gas turbine efficiency
to energy storage to innovative wind turbine manufacturing techniques.
W
hen Gary Leonard, General
Electric's global technology director
for aero-thermal and mechanical
systems technologies, spoke with
POWER Contributing Editor Mark Axford
at this year's Gulf Coast Power Association's
Spring Conference in Houston, he commented
on several ways GE is developing technologies
for the power industry's future.
GE has so many products that are part of
the power generation industry. How do you
prioritize the areas of focus to determine
where the research dollars are spent?
Leonard: We try to monetize the value we
can create for the world. If we make something
more efficient, how much fuel does
that save the world? If we reduce the cost
of a product, how much capital investment
does that save the world? You can always
turn value into dollars, make an estimate of
" How much will it cost GE to make this happen? "
and then examine the risk of failure, so
if you are proposing research with a high risk
of failure, it better produce a lot of value and
not a lot of cost.
GE's current annual budget for R&D is
$4.5 billion. Is all of that from GE stockholders,
or is some of that provided by
grants from governments and other organizations?
Leonard:
Most is from GE stockholders.
We do get some funding from the military
for aircraft engines. Out of the $4.5 billion,
about $600 million per year is allocated to
the GE research centers and about $90 million
of the $600 million comes from government
and other agencies.
The hot buttons in the ERCOT market
are demand response and capacity shortfall.
There is a debate over whether new
generation, old generation, and demand
response should become eligible to earn
a capacity payment. GE has worked to
develop compressed air storage technology.
Why do you think air storage has
66
not caught on in the U.S. despite its 70%
round-trip efficiency and $1,000/kW installed
cost?
Leonard: In the U.S., compressed air
storage technology is still not cost effective,
even at $1,000/kW. While there may some
local areas in the U.S. where the economics
work, large-scale energy storage becomes
economical when supporting grids have at
we ever see smaller-diameter, multi-stage
wind turbines?
Leonard: Well, there's only so much energy
to be captured in a wind stream of a certain
diameter. We've looked at inlet funnels,
and this might help, but I think wind turbines
will be single stage for the foreseeable future,
and they will get larger, not smaller.
The problem is that the blades are already so
Wind turbines will be single stage for the
foreseeable future.
least 15% to 20% renewable energy and
the associated cycling. In Germany, we are
starting to get some traction on compressed
air storage plants sized at about 300 MW
with 8 hours of peak duration. You can
double the storage capacity by doubling the
size of the cavern, and all of this happens
for a small increase in project cost. That's
why I am very bullish about gigawatt-hours
of storage capability; most of the cost is the
turbo-machinery.
Tell me more about the battery technology
that GE is working on to supplement wind
farms.
Leonard: Since cost and weight are the
key parameters, we started by setting a design
specification that called out low-cost
materials. We want to have energy storage
capacity that is at least two times that of a
lead acid battery as measured in amp-hours
per pound weight. We think this will be economically
viable during the next few years.
If your mission is pure frequency regulation,
maybe a lithium-ion battery makes the most
sense. But GE is more focused on power
firming and serious energy storage.
Is there any breakthrough technology on
the horizon that you can talk about relating
to wind turbines? Aside from the fact
that they get bigger and bigger and now
go offshore, where are we headed? Will
www.powermag.com
long, transportation has become a significant
challenge. So perhaps the " development "
that we need is a better way to manufacture
the blades-not in a conventional factory but
in a temporary factory set up inexpensively
at the location of the wind farm. GE is working
with the U.S. Department of Energy on a
design called " tension fabric blade. " Much of
the blade material would be a high-strength
cloth that could be delivered to the jobsite in
rolls. We could make the blades longer since
the allowable length of a truck on the interstate
highway would no longer be a design
constraint. This could be a game-changer.
You were personally involved in the hugely
successful wet compression technology
adapted to the GE LM6000 gas turbine
and trademarked as " Sprint. " GE later introduced
an ultra-high-efficiency 100-MW
gas turbine (the LMS100) that included an
intercooler. Are other advancements in
wet compression and intercooling on the
horizon for GE ?
Leonard: We're always taking technology
to the next level. As it turns out, Sprint
technology may someday be regarded as a
disruptive technology since it is utilized by
so many models of gas turbines. I'm confident
that we will see more wet compression
in GE gas turbine products. ■
-Mark Axford is a POWER contributing
editor.
POWER | September 2013
http://www.powermag.com
POWER September 2013

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