GE Energy has entered into an investment and licensing agreement with California-based eSolar that enables GE to deploy Integrated Solar Combined Cycle (ISCC) technology to customers worldwide. eSolar is a provider of next-generation, tower-based concentrating solar thermal technology. MetCap Energy Investments, a Turkish investor and developer of power projects, plans to collaborate with GE in making this investment.

'When we look at the long-term future of power generation, we see the importance of integrating natural gas and renewable energy sources in new and innovative ways to provide energy that is cleaner, more cost effective and more reliable,' said Paul Browning, president and CEO – thermal products for GE Energy. 'We developed the FlexEfficiency 50 combined-cycle power plant to enable more renewables to come on the grid and to improve power plant efficiency. Our investment in eSolar is another step in our journey to transform the energy industry.'

Under the agreement, GE will license and incorporate eSolar technology into its offers of cost-effective ISCC and standalone solar thermal power plants.

An ISCC project combines a combined-cycle system including a gas turbine, steam turbine, generators and a heat recovery steam generator, with a field of mirrors that focus sunlight on a tower to produce high-temperature steam. Steam generated in the solar field is fed into the water-steam cycle of the combined-cycle plant, increasing the power of the steam turbine and creating extra megawatts of electricity without using any additional natural gas.

FlexEfficiency ‘revolutionary’

'GE has the world’s largest installed base of gas turbines that are being used in ISCC power plants, but these plants used higher cost and lower temperature trough technology and combined-cycle technology that have limitations in flexibility. Our revolutionary FlexEfficiency technology was designed from the ground up to integrate with renewable power, and the addition of eSolar’s high temperature tower technology to our FlexEfficiency combined-cycle power plant is an important step forward for our industry because it allows us to offer an ISCC power plant that creates more value for customers at a competitive cost,' said Browning.