Skip to Content

GE’s CEO Says Wind Power Doesn’t Need Government Help

Although U.S. subsidies are due to end next year, GE plans to increase wind turbine production.
July 13, 2011

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.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Scientists are finding signals of long covid in blood. They could lead to new treatments.

Faults in a certain part of the immune system might be at the root of some long covid cases, new research suggests.

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.