GE Announces Winners of Ecomagination Challenge, Invests in 10 Home Energy Start-Ups

General Electric has entrepreneurial aspirations.   The company recently announced $63 million of investments in 10 home energy companies as part of its ecomagination Challenge. The initiative, announced last July, is a $200 million commitment to invest and develop partnerships with promising clean technology start-ups.   The company along with its venture capital partners — Emerald Technology Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, RockPort Capital, the Carbon Trust and Foundation Capital — have so far deployed $134 million.   “It allows us to connect to these incredible, innovative companies,” said Mark L. Vachon, the vice president of G.E.’s ecomagination effort. “We can help get these ideas faster into the commercialization process.”   For General Electric, which spent $1.5 billion in 2009 on clean technology research and development, the program is a low-cost way to identify promising start-ups with potentially breakthrough technologies. So far, it has made 22 investments and one acquisition, FMC-Tech, a power grid technology company.   To continue reading about GE’s investments in Home Energy start ups, click here.   To read more on the subject, click on the following headlines; - General Electric Announces Ecomagination Home Challenge Winners - GE Ecomagination Awards $63m to Ten Energy Tech Firms   GE Releases 2010 Ecomagination Annual Report, R&D Investments Total Nearly $2 Billion in 2010   GE adds 22 new products & solutions, bringing total ecomagination portfolio to 110

FAIRFIELD, Conn., Jun 20, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- --Ecomagination revenues hit $18 billion for year

GE today released its ecomagination annual report showing it invested about $1.8 billion in 2010 on research and development of clean technologies, which puts it on course to meet its goal of $10 billion cumulative investment between 2010 and 2015.   This investment helped lead to the development in 2010 of 22 new ecomagination-qualified products and solutions such as WattStation(TM), a user-friendly charging station designed to accelerate the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles and Nucleus(TM), a smart meter technology that helps homeowners manage energy use. During the year, GE generated $18 billion in revenues from ecomagination products and has surpassed $85 billion in sales since the program began in 2005 -- making ecomagination one of the most successful commercial initiatives in the history of GE. The company also reduced its energy intensity in 2010 by nearly 33% and GHG emissions 24% as compared with a 2004 baseline.   To continue reading about the R & D investments, click here.   To read about specific new products, click on the following link: Ecomagination: General Electric Cashes In   About GE
GE (NYSE: GE) is an advanced technology, services and finance company taking on the world’s toughest challenges. Dedicated to innovation in energy, health, transportation and infrastructure, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs about 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.ge.com.
 
Citizenship at GE is more than a program or a set of good intentions - it is a full-time commitment built upon cultural behaviors and actions. These actions are integrated with business strategy and have defined goals, strategies and metrics that make it actionable and accountable.
 
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