Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Cool Stuff At General Electric Research and Development: Batteries; LED's; Grid (GE; AONE; CREE; RMBS)

A subject near and dear to our hearts.*
The stock is down a dime at $18.18 after trading at a 7 1/2 month high of $18.35.
From GE:
In the Lab With the GE Brain, EVs, & Vscan

Over the holidays, scientists at GE Global Research provided a closer look at some of their latest technologies with a series of lab videos that featured next-generation LED lights, composite materials for jet engines, and coatings to keep ice off of turbine blades.

The research team has provided another inside look, this time highlighting the GE Brain, the latest in electric vehicles research, and the lab’s role in developing GE’s handheld ultrasound, Vscan. (They’re the same technologies featured in the Global Research team’s playful vision of what might be fueling Santa’s toy lab of the future.)

As Charles Theurer describes in the video below, just as the world’s energy needs have outgrown the current electric grid system, the world’s digital needs have outgrown the current IT infrastructure. Enter the GE Brain, which is a mobile, low-cost sensing, processing, and communication hub that will one day serve as a platform for a high-powered decision network with artificial intelligence. The goal is to use technology such as the GE Brain as a companion to help interpret the vast amounts of data that’s available.



In this video, Lembit Salasoo — who we recently featured in our story about GE’s battery breakthrough for large vehicles such as buses and trucks – explains the hybrid drivetrain that is also part of the project. The battery technology Lembit’s team is working on has the potential to cut battery costs by 20 percent by pairing a sodium battery with a lithium battery. It essentially combines the pick-up that today’s passenger EVs have with the power storage that big industrial batteries offer....MORE
Previously:

 July 21, 2009 
Q&A: Mark Little, Head of GE Global Research- "GE is pushing the smart grid and thin-film solar, but don't expect new kinds of nuclear reactors. "
Oct. 28, 2009
"Can R&D Save General Electric?" and "GE's Risky Energy Research" (GE)
Possibly.
Combined with lobbying and firing Immelt.
Dec. 31, 2009 
Cheers! To a decade of innovation at General Electric’s labs (GE)
March 18, 2010 
Watch Out First Solar: "GE outlines R&D efforts with CdTe thin-film technology" (FSLR; GE)
July 15, 2010 
"Immelt Stakes General Electric's Growth on Higher R&D as NBC, Finance Shrink" (GE)
July 15, 2010 
General Electric to Offer $200 Million Smart Grid Prize (along with Kleiner, Perkins; Rockport Capital; Foundation Cap...) GE