GE and Clean Energy Fuels Partner to Expand ‘America’s
Natural Gas Highway®’
HOUSTON—November 13, 2012—GE (NYSE: GE) and Clean Energy Fuels (Nasdaq: CLNE) today announced a
collaboration to expand the infrastructure for natural gas transportation in
the United States. The agreement supports Clean Energy’s efforts in developing
“America’s Natural Gas Highway®,” a fueling network that will enable trucks to operate on Liquefied
Natural Gas (LNG) coast to coast and border to border. Truck fleets often can
reduce fuel costs by more than 25 percent and lower emissions with LNG.
As part of the collaboration, Clean Energy Fuels will initially purchase
two ecomagination™-qualified MicroLNG plants from GE Oil &
Gas. The plug-and-play modular units, which are designed to rapidly liquefy
natural gas while minimizing a site’s physical footprint, will support fueling
stations along critical transportation
corridors that run across the U.S. Further
underscoring GE’s commitment to expanding natural gas transportation
infrastructure, GE Energy Financial Services is providing up to $200 million in
financing for the two GE MicroLNG plants.
“GE is proud to be partnering with Clean Energy Fuels to develop natural
gas infrastructure in the U.S. Clean Energy is an industry leader in pioneering
a new way for America to fuel its vehicles and to further gain energy
independence,” said GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt.
“With an abundance of cleaner, more affordable natural gas here in the U.S.,
this is an important opportunity for GE to join Clean Energy in changing the
way America drives. It’s also a critical step in developing a natural
gas-for-transportation fuel model that can be easily exported to other
countries interested in exactly these kinds of breakthrough projects.”
Clean Energy expects to complete approximately 70 LNG stations by the end
of 2012, with more planned for next year to serve the movement of goods along
major transportation corridors throughout the U.S. While CNG, or compressed
natural gas, is primarily used in cars, buses and smaller trucks, the LNG
fueling being rolled out at Clean Energy’s stations is targeted at long-haul,
heavy-duty trucks, which will have the advantage of longer driving ranges while
not impacting tractor weight and incremental costs. In 2013, four major
manufacturers will introduce the Cummins Westport 12-liter LNG engine, which is
the optimum size for long-haul Class 8 trucks.
Clean Energy plans to use a standardized design of the new GE MicroLNG plants to build additional MicroLNG
plants. These
first two MicroLNG plants will produce up to 250,000
gallons per day. The plant is designed to be expanded up to 1 million gallons per day as adoption and demand increases. The LNG produced by the MicroLNG plants will be used primarily at Pilot-Flying J
truck stops that serve truckers across the country. The two GE MicroLNG plants are targeted to begin operation in 2015.
The two companies are currently assessing the best locations for these first
two LNG plants.
“The agreement announced today with GE is one of the most significant
milestones in Clean Energy’s history,” said Andrew J. Littlefair,
president and CEO of Clean Energy Fuels. “As the long-haul trucking industry
begins its transition to natural gas, it will be critical to have a reliable
supply of LNG. No other company is as uniquely qualified as GE to help address
this need due to its vast experience in energy, technology innovations and
financing capabilities. GE partnering with Clean Energy on these two facilities
will not only help ensure an adequate LNG supply for our stations, but it is
another confirmation that the transition to natural gas as a transportation
fuel is gaining momentum.”
Natural gas is an abundant, reliable and cleaner-burning source of energy
for consumers and commercial users. Clean Energy Fuels and GE are promoting the
importance of natural gas to the U.S. economy, enabling energy independence and
decreasing CO2 emissions—in this case, by enabling long-haul trucks
and fleets to move from diesel to cleaner, more efficient and readily available
domestic natural gas.
“GE is committed to natural gas. From extraction to transport to power
generation—we continue to develop solutions that infuse new technologies into
the value chain and help improve every step of the natural gas development and
deployment life cycle,” said Dan Heintzelman, president and CEO of GE Oil & Gas. “Our ecomagination-qualified MicroLNG
plant was born from the same turbomachinery
technology that has made GE a success in large LNG compression such as in the
world-scale plants in Qatar and Australia. By taking this technology and
reengineering it so that it’s modular and highly efficient, we are able to help
customers such as Clean Energy deliver this abundant and cleaner fuel source to
the market.”
GE’s MicroLNG plant can liquefy natural gas at
any point along a gas distribution network, making it ideal for supporting the
fueling of vehicles in remote locations by reducing the impact of long distance
fuel transport. This MicroLNG technology is part of
GE’s expanding technology offerings in the natural gas-for-transportation
sector.
The new
GE MicroLNG system that will be used by Clean Energy
will produce 250,000 gallons of LNG per day, or about 54 million DGEs (diesel gallon equivalents)
per year with the built-in capability for further expansion, which
is a 67 percent increase over the capacity of the breakthrough MicroLNG plant that GE Oil & Gas first introduced in
January of 2012. The new system will help reduce a fleet operator’s fuel costs
by more than 25 percent compared to diesel fuel. LNG produced with this MicroLNG system can be used to fuel approximately 28,000
heavy trucks, replacing diesel-powered trucks with equivalent fuel economy.
This could enable fleet operators to avoid more than 139,000 metric tons of CO2e
emissions per year, equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of
approximately 27,000 cars using gasoline or 7,000 trucks using diesel on U.S. roads—assuming an average truck travels
approximately 14,000 miles per year.
GE also is providing turnkey process/plant construction and consultations
on optimal plant location and power partner. The scope of the agreement also
includes project installation. It entails not only the liquefaction but also
the complete process design from the pre-treatment of the gas to the storage
system.
Ecomagination is GE’s commitment to
providing innovative solutions that maximize resources, drive economic
performance and help make the world work better.
About GE
GE
(NYSE: GE) works on things that matter. The best people and
the best technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and
finance. Building, powering, moving and curing the
world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For
more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.
About GE Oil
& Gas
GE Oil & Gas
is a world leader in advanced technology equipment and services for all
segments of the oil and gas industry, from drilling and production, LNG,
pipelines and storage to industrial power generation, refining and
petrochemicals. GE Oil & Gas also provides pipeline integrity solutions,
including inspection and data management, and designs and manufactures
wire-line and drilling measurement solutions for the oilfield services segment.
As part of its
customer focus and commitment, GE Oil & Gas exploits technological
innovation from other GE businesses, such as aviation and healthcare, to continuously
improve oil and gas industry performance and productivity. GE Oil & Gas
employs more than 35,000 people worldwide and operates in more than 100
countries.
Follow GE Oil
& Gas on Twitter @GE_OilandGas.
About Clean Energy Fuels
Clean
Energy (Nasdaq: CLNE) is the largest provider of natural gas fuel
for transportation in North America and a global leader in the expanding
natural gas vehicle fueling market. We have operations in compressed natural
gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) vehicle fueling and construction and
operation of natural gas fueling stations. Wholly-owned subsidiaries include
BAF Technologies, which provides natural gas vehicle systems and conversions for
taxis, vans, pick-up trucks and shuttle buses; IMW Industries, Ltd., which
supplies CNG equipment for vehicle fueling and industrial applications
worldwide; NorthStar, which supplies LNG and
liquefied to compressed natural gas fueling system technologies and equipment,
station construction and operations; and Clean Energy Renewable Fuels (CERF),
which develops renewable natural gas (RNG), or biomethane,
production facilities in the U.S. For more information, visit www.cleanenergyfuels.com
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“America’s
Natural Gas Highway” is a trademark of Clean Energy.
ecomagination is
a trademark of the General Electric Company.
For more information, contact:
|
Sean Gannon GE Oil & Gas +1 212 587 5059 Donna Mirandola GE Oil & Gas +1 773 318 7483 Gary Foster Clean Energy Fuels +1 562 774 7056 |
|
Ken
Darling or Kate Culman
Masto
Public Relations
+1 518 786 6488