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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