GE Buys Stake In Solar Power Plant Builder eSolar, Licenses Technology

Does General Electric chief Jeffrey Immelt aim to be the new sun king?

GE made another move into the nascent solar industry on Monday, taking a stake in California solar power plant builder eSolar and licensing its technology.

The global behemoth said it will integrate eSolar’s solar thermal technology into its new 510-megawatt, high-efficiency natural gas-powered plant, the FlexEfficiency 50, which GE unveiled in May.

In April, GE said it would build the United States’ largest solar panel factory, moving to compete with industry leaders such as First Solar as well as low-cost Chinese manufacturers.

The FlexEfficiency 50 is designed to ramp up and down quickly in response to fluctuations in energy production from intermittent sources of renewable energy such as wind farms and solar power plants. GE said integrating eSolar’s technology will boost a FlexEfficiency power station’s efficiency from 61 percent to 70 percent.

“When we look at the long-term future of power generation, we see the importance of integrating natural gas and renewable energy sources in new and innovative ways to provide energy that is cleaner, more cost effective and more reliable,” Paul Browning, chief of GE’s thermal products division, said in a statement.

GE will also build standalone solar power plants that deploy eSolar’s “power tower” technology. The investment, the size of which was not disclosed, is a boost to eSolar, a Pasadena, Calif., startup founded by serial technology entrepreneur Bill Gross.

Gross and his colleagues devised algorithms and imaging technology to control thousands of small mirrors called heliostats that focus the sun’s rays on a water-filled boiler atop a tower. The heat creates steam that drives an electricity-generating turbine.

ESolar built a 5-megawatt demonstration power plant in the desert northeast of Los Angeles in 2009 and subsequently signed a deal with NRG Energy to build projects in California and elsewhere.

When eSolar was unable to obtain federal loan guarantees to finance construction of the NRG projects, the deal fell apart and NRG replaced its solar thermal technology with photovoltaic panels like those found on residential rooftops.

Gross previously told me that he never really wanted to get into the power plant business, preferring to license eSolar’s technology to deep-pocketed developers who could take on the onerous tasks of licensing and financing multibillion-dollar solar projects.

MetCap Energy Investments, a Turkish investor and power plant builder, joined GE in making the investment in eSolar. The first generation of the FlexEfficiency is designed for the European market and MetCap’s involvement could signal a move into Asian and Middle Eastern markets.