Technology Info Crunch

March 16, 2017 Robots come in many shapes, sizes and iterations. And though most of us envision the gleaming cyborgs or giant armored machines gleaned from decades of science fiction, at GE, robots are helping one of its Distributed Power manufacturing facilities become safer, more cost effective and efficient. Making its debut in Jenbach, Austria, a different kind of robot is now working alongside its human brethren. A giant robot named Goliath is helping GE staff manufacture some of the most efficient, cleanest, high tech gas engines in the world, faster and safer than ever before. With a power range of 100 kW to 10 MW, they can run on a variety of fuels, including natural gas, biogas, coal seam gases and associated petroleum gases. The Jenbacher* gas engines produced with Goliath are used in dozens of applications, like hospitals, power plants, greenhouses, residencies and even other factories to produce power, heat and cooling. They are particularly popular for renewable and wa...

I’ve frequently spoken about the power of digital. In all my years working in the energy industry there hasn’t been anything this exciting and potentially game changing. I believe the digital transformation of electricity is the single biggest opportunity we have to make power more accessible to the over billion people who don’t have it; more reliable for the over two billion who don’t have enough of it; and more sustainable for the people who have it. But it’s going to require putting aside our fears about digital and combining forces within the energy ecosystem to embrace this opportunity. Today, the energy ecosystem is an interconnected matrix of hardware and software technologies, from distribution to consumption, as well as production. Technology advancements, environmental concerns, changing consumer behavior, regulatory and policy changes, unprecedented fuel availability, and resource constraints are driving transformations in th...