GE Completes Acquisition Of Wind Blades Manufacturer LM Wind Power (Assignment 5 - Topic 2)

[Arslan Ijaz]

https://cleantechnica.com/2017/04/25/ge-completes-acquisition-wind-blades-manufacturer-lm-wind-power/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IM-cleantechnica+%28CleanTechnica%29

[Arslan Ijaz]

As the trend of saving cost on the electricity production and moving forward towards renewable energy resources is increasing, by completing an acquisition with LM wind power GE took a big step in this direction. General Electric is world's leading digital industrial company with various businesses and renewable energy is one them. According to GE, 50% of all the electricity capacity additions were from renewable energy resources and wind power was the 35% of that growth. So considering these statistics, GE has invested in a right spot at a right time. Since GE is the manufacturer of thousands of on shore and off shore wind turbines, it will be a huge advancement for GE to use the engineering and design of LM for their turbine blades. By doing so, GE will be enabled to maximize the turbine efficiency, lower the electricity production cost and hence gaining their customer's trust on them. 

[Martinez, Alfred S.]

It's of no surprise that a conglomerate like GE is further developing its renewable energy branch. The already have a solar and wind division - so it's great to see that they are developing this division. It's reassuring to see a company like GE who has been known for its gas and oil turbines, is expanding into the realm of renewable and clean energy sources. Acquiring LM Wind Power will make GE's wind sector more competitive, because it will now be able to develop wind turbine blades and designs in-house without going through a third party. Additionally, this creates more revenue streams as the wind power sector is becoming increasingly popular with customers and the environment. It seems as if GE is satisfying the needs of Mother Earth and its inhabitants.

[Wojciech Trawinski]

Its good to see the technological push of GE towards further developing its wind power sector, but at the same time the industry giant continues to grow and continues to acquire more of the market share of alternate wind energy needs. I always tend to look at the potentially bad side of things, and want to pose the following question; what happens when GE eventually takes over ALL production of wind energy related goods? Hopefully morally and ethically the company is in good standing to avoid monopolistic ideologies. 

[Dobhal, Shivani]

LM windpower has an impressive track record of manufacturing rotor blades for the wind industry. Upon reading further on their contributions to wind power, facts indicate that they have generated about 77GW of wind capacity, saving about 150 million tons of C02 each year. GE has long been a major wind turbine maker, but in collaborating with LM it will now be able to produce its own blades and thus become a world leader in the renewable energy business. LM's cutting-edge blade designs would further GE's profits and sustainability cause due to their overall cost-effectiveness. I think this collaboration is a great move by GE and LM wind power, both in terms of maximizing wind energy power generation and profitability. 

[Arslan Ijaz]

Although both of these companies are internationally well known, still this type of fusion will increase GE's customers and profitability because LM has its headquarter in Denmark. So for GE it will be a good catch to get more international customers because of the completion of this acquisition. Same goes for LM wind power because GE's headquarter is in the US. I agree with you Shivani that it is a great move by GE and LM wind power.