General Electric (GE) is expected today to announce it will double its investment in renewable energy to $6bn by 2010 as the company seeks to build on its ecomagination strategy.
Reports in the Financial Times (FT) suggest the strength of the alternative energy market has prompted the company to increase its targets for investment in the sector.
The financial arm of the company, GE Energy Financial Services (EFS), now expects alternative energy to account for almost a quarter of its total investments in energy and water, up from 10 per cent in 2006.
"We are really attracted by the size and potential of this market," Alex Urquhart, chief executive of GE EFS unit, told the FT, adding that renewable energy was now the division's fastest growing business. "This sector is proving to offer a lot more opportunities than we first thought."
The news comes just days after GE EFS pledged to invest $350m in a new 166MW wind farm in Texas and announced a new partnership with solar panel manufacturer SunPower, which will fund five solar power projects in California.
The investment drive is seen as a key component of GE's ecomagination strategy, which aims to make conglomerates operations greener. This includes pledges to increase revenues from green products to $20bn, and research spending on cleaner technologies to $1.5bn by 2010.
