GE unveils turbine to improve grid efficiency
New York Times // Sep 27, 2012The New York Times reports on General Electric's new natural gas-powered turbines that work with renewable energy sources. The new power plants operate at above 60% efficiency and allow for operators to quickly adjust output. The New York Times reports:
[R]elying on renewable energy requires other generators on the grid to rapidly adjust their production, up and down, to compensate. Some grid operators will therefore pay the owners of generators not only for how much energy they produce but for how quickly they can change their output to help balance the supply as demand shifts. So G.E. has introduced a product line called FlexEfficiency that allows operators to adjust quickly as renewable energy comes on on and off the grid, including a 750-megawatt combined-cycle plant that can vary its output by 100 megawatts in one minute. The model introduced in 2000 could only change its output by 50 megawatts in one minute.
