By Scott Miller
smiller@scbiznews.com
Published Dec. 8, 2009

The CEO of General Electric said that the company would consider a partnership with the Clemson University Restoration Institute in North Charleston that could further expand its research into wind power.

Jeffrey R. Immelt also said he sees more opportunity for growth at GE’s Greenville facilities.

Before delivering a keynote address during a Summit on Renewable Energy in Greenville, Immelt told reporters that GE is open to pursuing some kind of partnership with the institute though no such agreement presently exists.

“It’s a good investment that can create jobs for a long time,” Immelt said of Clemson’s planned wind turbine testing facility in North Charleston.

GE operates the world’s largest gas turbine manufacturing plant in Greenville, where it employs more than 3,100 people.

“The Greenville site is a model site for what can be created in South Carolina and around the nation,” Immelt said, noting that 90% of the gas turbines produced there our exported.

In Greenville, GE also manufactures gear boxes for wind turbines and blades for jet engines.

“I see many opportunities for the Greenville facility to grow,” Immelt said, noting that the facility is part of GE’s two core businesses, aviation and energy.

During his keynote address, Immelt stressed the need to develop more alternative energy technologies and said Clemson is a positioned to be a leader in the field. During the speech, Immelt again expressed interest in Clemson’s North Charleston operations.

Last month Clemson announced that the Restoration Institute would test the next generation of wind turbines and drivetrains after receiving a $45 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Immelt said energy is one of the core business sectors in which GE is investing, and that the drivetrain test facility could change how energy is delivered in the United States.

“It’s exactly the type of thing that interests us as a company — wind power and offshore wind,” Immelt said. “I think this is a good catalyst for offshore wind in the United States.”

The specifics about any future partnership remain unclear, but Immelt stressed GE’s interest in the project and in the work researchers at the North Charleston campus are pursuing.

“We are quite interested in the North Charleston facility,” he said. “We just need to see that evolve over time, so it’s too early to comment on what our plans might be.”

An earlier meeting, also held at Clemson’s International Center for Automotive Research, featured the U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. The meetings were organized to help lay the ground work for a possible renewable energy cluster in the state to establish public policy and foster partnerships in South Carolina that could create jobs across South Carolina. Those efforts got a boost in November with the announcement of the drivetrain test facility.

Because the larger wind turbines would be largely created for offshore wind farms, testing them prior to installation is critical. When the facility is up and running, two rigs will test wind turbine drivetrains for durability by simulating the conditions they would face over their intended life spans.

“In the real world, if you put this turbine out in the water, it may last for a number of years and the failures may not show up,” said Imtiaz Haque, director of graduate engineering studies at Clemson University and executive director of the Campbell Graduate Engineering Center. “If you do it in a lab, you can get it to show up faster and improve the designs.”

Researchers and graduate students from Clemson University will work at the facility to observe the breakdown in drivetrain functions and find solutions to make them last longer. Engineers from manufacturers would likely be on site to do the same.

Clemson faculty also plan to engage in research to improve the design of wind turbines. Haque said he sees opportunities to reduce the weight of the drivetrains, for example. Some Clemson faculty members are studying control systems and other elements of wind turbines.

Ashley Fletcher Frampton contributed to this report.