China Clean Tech Industry Gets $2 Billion More from GE

November 12th, 2010 by Zachary Shahan

What’s one sign that you are a clean tech leader? You get General Electric (GE) investing $2 billion in clean tech innovation and services in your country.

China is going to be the “lucky” recipient of such investment, it was announced this week. $500 million is going towards clean tech research and development (R&D) and the other $1.5 billion is going towards technology and financial services joint ventures.

Of course, the clean-tech-friendly Chinese government is easier to partner with than many other world-leading governments (ahem,.. the U.S. government), making China more and more attractive to those looking to invest and expand into this industry more and more.

“GE has already signed four energy and rail joint venture agreements with Chinese state-owned firms,” Reuters reported. “Two of the agreements are with units of China’s State Grid, the country’s largest power grid operator, one to manufacture and market grid monitoring and diagnostic products and another to buy a controlling stake in a Shanghai-based green power distribution equipment maker.”

The other two agreements are “with a unit of China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corp to develop components for diesel locomotives and with the Beijing National Railway Research and Design Institute of Signal and Communication to supply railway and urban transit signaling systems.”

“The new joint ventures are in line with our strategy to build partnerships in China to support our business here and globally,” said GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt.

In total, the investments, which are to go through 2012 are expected to create 1,000 jobs.

Over the next five years, GE plans to invest a total of $10 billion in clean energy goods and services. With a ton of clean-energy-killers recently being elected to U.S. Congress, I can’t be very hopeful that much of that is going to be invested in the U.S…. just sayin’.

Photo Credit: Timothy Valentine via flickr (CC license)

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Tags: China, clean energy investment, clean tech investment, GE

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

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Eddy

Very disappointing…

For me, any way put this, or any excuse or “reason” you can come out to convince me that GE should invest this kind of capital in China is pathetic. This news to me is disgusting. An “American” funded company investing such capital when its home base nation is going through such bad economic times is mutiny. If this is not clear indication that conglomerates such as GE are already “abandoning” ship (aka. USA) and seeking better seas then i don’t know what is. I’m all in favor of companies seeking economic opportunities, but serious, why are we feeding our own demise…

and I wasn’t born in this nation…
- http://www.zacharyshahan.com Zachary Shahan
  
  @Eddy: it really is a shame. & I think a part of the problem is our politicians don’t work for the American people but work for the big companies that fund them (which are largely dirty energy companies).
Roger L

Zach:

You say, “Of course, the clean-tech-friendly Chinese government is easier to partner with than many other world-leading governments (ahem,.. the U.S. government), making China more and more attractive to those looking to invest and expand into this industry more and more.”

Could it not be that GE finds China an overall more attractive business environment than anything else for all industries. I believe this might be the case and the clean tech area is just another group of businesses GE is leveraging to their benefit. The overall business climate in the USA is affected adversely by recent regulatory changes and uncertain future (ie. think Obama Care, raising business taxes etc.). Clean tech policies play a part in the uncertainty but you will find the overall lack of business attractiveness here is dominated by non-clean tech issues.
- http://www.zacharyshahan.com Zachary Shahan
  
  @Roger L: well, there are always a number of issues to take into consideration, but it is very clear and well-known that the US is losing a lot of clean tech investment due to our inability to create a more clean-tech-friendly investment environment.