Part of the company's Ecomagination program, which hopes to advance new, cleaner technologies for generating power and wastewater treatment, GE Energy has introduced a high-power, highly efficient solar panel at the recent Power-Gen International 2005 conference in Las Vegas. Composed of polycrystalline cells, the panel is UL-1703-certified and capable of producing 200 watts of power. Due to the its higher power output, the system promises lower installation costs, as fewer panels are required.

“Using GE Energy's 200-watt solar modules will allow us to increase the amount of power generation per square foot of roofing space by 20 percent. This results in savings for our customers on both material and labor costs while reducing the amount of roof space the need to allocate to power generation,” said Ed O'Brien, partner, McConell Energy Solutions.

Through the Ecomagination program, GE says it plans to invest $1.5 billion annually in research by 2010 compared to $700 million spent in 2004. For more information, visit www.ge.com/ecomagination.