Proven performance
Our turbine legacy
From higher efficiency and lower costs to faster, cleaner, higher quality power generation, aeroderivative gas turbines have many advantages.
The aero advantage
50 years and counting
GE has been in the aeroderivatives business for 50 years, with more than 150 million operating hours and more than 3,000 units in operation.
Aeroderivative turbines can be installed quickly—in as little as a few weeks—to help alleviate frequent outages, making them especially well-suited for utility and industrial applications.
Benefits
Aeroderivatives vs. reciprocating engines
The perks of aeroderivative turbines are many. Here are just a few that independent power providers like you can benefit from.
Environmental friendliness: Low emissions help with footprint reduction along your decarbonization journey.
Fast installation: Compact and modular, they can be installed in as little as three months.
Fast response rate: They accept loads quickly with the ability to split or share them, yet still maintain fuel efficiency.
Diverse fuel options: Being able to switch between natural gas, LPG, isopentane, ethanol, diesel, and more significantly reduces OpEx.
High availability: With the highest availability of any thermal power technology, you’ll see 98+%.
Less maintenance: They require no offline maintenance in the first 10 years for peaking applications.
Start-up efficacy: They have faster start-up times with little or no cyclic life penalty and a modular construction.
Easy mobilization: They’re “footprint friendly” for quicker installment, removal, replacement, and reallocation.
Operational flexibility: They accept loads faster with the ability to split or share them, yet still maintain fuel efficiency.
Lightweight frame: With a small energy footprint, they utilize advanced, lightweight materials to take up substantially less floor space.
Annual maintenance: They require maintenance just once a year, saving some 13,000 man-hours.
Gas turbines yield higher quality power
Plant availability and fuel flexibility
High availability
Aeroderivative gas turbines have the highest availability of any thermal power technology. An aeroderivative gas turbine can be replaced in a power plant, such as a utility or power plant, within a few days for a major inspection, which translates to 98.6% availability.
Diverse fuel options
With the ability to operate on a wide spectrum of fuels—including natural gas, hydrogen, LPG (propane and butane), isopentane, ethanol, diesel, and Coke Oven gas—aeroderivative gas turbines can allow power customers to switch between fuels to save money, all without stopping, and without a reduction in power. Using diverse fuel sources doesn’t just increase reliability, it also results in significant fuel savings—from $12 million up to $43 million per year—as compared to the fuel costs of a high-speed reciprocating engine.
Gas turbines create faster power
Getting power to the grid, wherever it’s needed
Fast installation
Because they are small and modular, aeroderivative engines can be transported, installed and commissioned in as little as 3 months. They can be installed outdoors with minimal foundation requirements, making them an advantageous energy solution for any region that needs fast, clean, reliable power.
Fast response rate
GE’s aeroderivative gas turbines feature a power turbine and high-pressure shaft that work together to respond quickly to grid frequency fluctuations, helping create a more stable and reliable grid.
Aeroderivatives yield cleaner power
Smaller and more stable
Lower emissions
Equipped with best-in-class combustion systems, aeroderivative gas turbines can offer 15 or 25 ppm NOx without needing SCRs (selective catalytic reduction) or the use of ammonia.
Enabling renewables
Aeroderivative gas turbines allow renewables to operate when needed, saving fuel and maintenance—and maintaining a stable grid to allow the integration of more renewables in the future.
Smaller footprint
Because they have about 22 times more power output per unit than comparable high-speed diesel reciprocating engines, GE’s aeroderivative gas power plants take up less space—a real advantage where real estate is expensive. *
*Comparison based on 3 LM2500s (vs. 100 MW of recips).
Find out more
Related products
GE gas turbines are quick to install and widely apply across today’s industries. Take a closer look at our legacy and OEM aeroderivative portfolio.
Customer stories
- USA
Inventive NOx scrubbing reduces emissions for California
After recent wildfires and drought conditions, California remains alert and prepared for energy emergencies. Anticipating a supply shortage if hydropower runs dry, the state’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) acted as procurement agent, commissioning four 30-MW GE TM2500 aeroderivative gas turbines.
Governor Newsom declared safeguarding the grid as imperative, but so was keeping it deeply green, as California sees massive success in meeting its own incredibly strict emissions rules. Honoring this with ingenuity, GE built in selective catalytic reduction scrubbers (SCRs) to the turbines for a markedly low NOX emission rating of 2.5 PPM (opposed to the average of 15). To date, this tech innovation with SCRs is the first of its kind.
Featured video
Aeroderivative turbines vs. reciprocating engines: see for yourself
Curious to learn more about how aeros compare to reciprocating engines? Check out our video to see them go head-to-head.
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