GE Power Plant: The Power of Cross Borrowing

One important characteristic of product development is taking things that have been learned elsewhere and combining them with other things such that you end up with something that is more than the sum of its parts because what has been learned in that other sphere adds immeasurably to what is being developed.

Case in point: the GE (ge.com) FlexEfficiency 50 Combined Cycle Power Plant.

The facility—which represents an investment of more than $500-million in R&D—is rated at 510 megawatts. That’s enough power for more than 600,000 European homes. It can ramp up at a rate of more than 50 MW per minute, which is twice what can be achieved by comparable industry benchmarks. What’s more, it provides a fuel efficiency of more than 61%.

Part of the reason why it can perform this well: They’ve taken know-how from other parts of the GE business, such as the expertise in jet engines.

Among the key elements of the FlexEfficiency 50 are a next-gen 9FB Gas Turbine that operates at 50 Hz; a 109D-14 Steam Turbine, which uses the waste heat from the gas turbine; and a W28 Generator.

One of the important aspects of the new power plant is that because it can ramp up and down so quickly it is able to provide grid balance so that wind and solar inputs can be readily accommodated. (GE has also developed what it claims is “the world’s most efficient wind turbine” and “the highest reported efficiency for thin film solar,” so it is stacking its developments up in a productive manner.)