Updated: GE doubles clean tech investment target

General Electric (GE) is planning to double investment in clean technology by 2015 after successfully reaching a series of green goals ahead of schedule.

The announcement formed the centrepiece of the company's annual report for its Ecomagination Campaign, confirming that it plans to invest $10bn in clean tech R &D by 2015 – twice the amount invested over the past five years.

The multinational said it had reached its target of investing $1.5bn a year in clean tech R&D by 2010 a year ahead of schedule, despite the impact of the global recession, and now plans to continue to step up investment in the development of low carbon products.

GE's Ecomagination campaign has been hailed as a major success, establishing the company as a major player in emerging clean tech industries such as wind turbines and efficient aircraft engines and locomotives.

The company also confirmed that sales of its Ecomagination products grew by six per cent year-on-year in 2009 to hit $18bn.

In addition, it said that the company will aim to grow revenue from Ecomagination products at twice the rate of its underlying sales growth by 2015, replacing plans announced last year to achieve $25bn in sales by 2010.

A GE spokeswoman denied reports today that the new target meant the company had effectively downgraded its previous plans, insisting the new goal was even more ambitious than the original $25bn goal.

"[The $25bn target] hasn't been scrapped," she told BusinessGreen.com. "We're still working towards that goal and these new commitments are even more aggressive than previous targets, so we see this investment as more of a push."

GE also announced plans to halve the energy intensity of operations and reduce total greenhouse gas emissions by one quarter by 2015, as part of its annual report.

In addition it reported that it had reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 22 pe r cent since 2004 and reduced water use by 30 per cent since 2006.