GE Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt is betting that wind power will be able to compete with conventional sources of energy, without government help.

At a company meeting held today at a gas turbine factory in Greenville, South Carolina, Immelt told employees that he's ordered the company to increase production capacity of wind turbines. He said that costs have come down to the point at which the technology will be able to compete in many areas of the world without subsidies. He seemed confident that wind turbine orders will increase, even though the valuable production tax credits, which have driven a boom in wind turbine installation in the United States, are set to expire next year.

Immelt's remarks were made at a two day event meant to highlight GE's emphasis on advanced manufacturing. He noted that all of the massive gas turbines produced at the Greenville facility will be exported out of the United States this year, to places such as India and Saudi Arabia. On the production line was a recently completed steam and gas turbine system destined for Iraq. Earlier this year, GE announced that it would soon introduce a new power plant designed to help buffer variability from wind farms.

Immelt said that in some cases—such as with gas turbines and solar panels—it's vital to co-locate manufacturing with research and development. His company has extensive testing facilities at the Greenville factory, which engineers can use to examine new designs before and after incorporating them into production turbines.

Today GE announced that it and its venture capital partners are investing $63 million in ten companies developing alternative energy and energy efficiency technologies. Here are some interesting ones.

Witricity's technology, which TR featured as part of our annual TR10 list in 2008, transmits power wirelessly over distances of a couple of meters by manipulating magnetic fields. Maybe it will help make electric vehicles more popular: you could charge by simply parking over one of the company's devices.

GMZ Energy makes thermoelectric materials, which convert heat into electricity—TR wrote about the technology in 2008. The researchers who founded the company improved the performance of a thermoelectric material by 40 percent by crushing it to form fine, nanoscale powders, then packing the powders to form thin wafers.

Project Frog designs and builds kits for making efficient and inexpensive buildings. The kits are adapted for specific locations and can be designed to use zero net energy, which means they generate as much as they consume.

Nuventix has developed a method to keep LEDs from getting hot, which reduces their efficiency. Typically LEDs are cooled with heat sinks, but those are bulky. The company has developed a small and quiet air-cooling system —based on the company's demo, it looks a lot like a speaker. A diaphragm quickly forces air through a channel, creating a jet that cools the LED.

VPhase cuts home energy use by reducing the voltage that enters a house, while still maintaining the level needed for appliances and electronics to function properly. It's based on voltage regulation used in commercial and industrial settings, but made cheaper for home use.

Here's a complete list of the companies:

Ember, Boston, Massachusetts (Communications and software)

GMZ Energy, Waltham, Massachusetts (solar systems and services; co-investment with KPCB)

Hara, San Mateo, California (Communications and software; co-investment with KPCB)

Nuventix, Austin, Texas (Building efficiency)

On-Ramp Wireless, San Diego, California (Communications and software)

Project Frog, San Francisco, California (Building efficiency; co-investment with RockPort Capital)

SunRun, San Francisco, California (Residential solar systems and services; co-investment with Foundation Capital)

Viridity Energy, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania (Communications and software)

VPhase, Manchester, United Kingdom (Building efficiency)

WiTricity, Watertown, Massachusetts (Communications and software)

Today, GE announced a new power plant that is 61 percent efficient and can quickly ramp up to produce power, allowing it to make up for variations in power output from wind turbines.

Here's why this matters:

Wind power is variable. It depends on how fast the wind is blowing. These fluctuations could destabilize the grid and cause blackouts, especially as more wind turbines are attached to the grid. To make up for this variability, grid operators turn to natural gas peaking power plants that are designed to quickly ramp up power production. The problem with these plants is that they are very inefficient—the best ones from GE convert only 46 percent of the energy in natural gas into electricity, and older ones can have efficiency as low as 28 percent. So-called baseload natural gas power plants are far more efficient, but they take too long to change power output to keep up with changes in the wind.

The new generator can change power output quickly, and it can generate about two times more power from a cubic foot of natural gas than old, inefficient peaking plants. It's also more efficiency than even baseload plants. The new power plant could make the inefficient ones unnecessary, reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The higher efficiency could also reduce power costs.