General Electric will spend $1 billion in research and development this year on clean energy technologies, part of its Ecomagination environmental initiative.
The industrial giant announced the investment on Tuesday at its Global Research center here, where it also said that it will put $6.8 million of that into plug-in hybrid vehicles as part of a U.S. Department of Energy project.
The company hosted a day-long presentation at its labs to showcase technology developments in solar electricity, plug-in hybrid components, water desalination, high-efficiency lighting and home energy dashboards, and materials for wind turbines and aviation.
GE will invest about $1.1 billion of research this year, and it is on track of meeting its internal goal of spending $1.5 billion yearly by 2010 on cleaner technologies, said Lorraine Bolsinger, GE's vice president of Ecomagination....MORE
