General Electric (NYSE: GE) has announced the development of a new natural gas power plant. It calls the plant FlexEfficiency 60, and compared to present technology, GE’s new plant can save up to 56,000 metric tons of carbon emissions per year. The company has already secured $1.2 billion in orders for installations at projects across the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Japan.
The combined-cycle power plant can exceed 61 percent thermal efficiency, and it can swiftly increase or decrease its power output depending on fluctuations in wind or solar power. Thus, power companies can integrate more renewable resources onto the main grid, saving both money and fuel.
The FlexEfficiency portfolio includes four gas turbines, of which the 7F 7-series is the latest. GE claims it has record-breaking flexibility and efficiency in combined-cycle operations. Both 7F 7 and 7F 5 models are already available. The combined portfolio offers a power range from 185 MW to more than 300 MW.
GE’s $1.2 billion in orders includes 6 7F 7-series turbines supplied to Chubu Electric Power Co.’s (TYO: 9502) Nishi-Nagoya 2,300-megawatt power facility in Nagoya, Japan; 8 7F 5-series turbines to Saudi Electricity Company’s Riyadh Power Plant 12 project; 2 7F 5-series turbines to the Cherokee Clean Air Clean Jobs project in Denver, Colo.; 2 7F 5-series turbines and a GE D11 steam turbine to Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) in the U.S.; and 1 7F 5-series gas turbine to an unidentified customer in the Western U.S.
