Steam team

has teamed up with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (

) to develop the next generation of steam turbines for use in gas-turbine combined-cycle power plants.

The two companies have signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) in order to meet global customer requirements for improved combine-cycle performance as part of their product offerings.

Production of steam turbines is currently driven by global demand for natural gas-fired, combined-cycle power-generation plants. According to GE, steam turbines continue to drive the power-generation industry, and generate more than 80 per cent of the world’s electricity.

Steve Bolze, president of GE Energy’s Power & Water business, said: ‘This MOU with MHI will lead to a high-performance steam turbine that will be able to meet the future customer performance and efficiency requirements of the growing combined-cycle industry.

‘It is the latest example of our ongoing commitment to technology advancement across all segments of the power-generation industry, including natural gas combined-cycle, nuclear, coal gasification, industrial, fossil fuel and renewable energy.’

Bolze added: ‘GE and MHI have each developed extensive experience in steam turbines over many decades, but have identified significant mutual product performance benefits in the co-development of the next-generation combined-cycle steam turbine.

‘Given the 100-year maturity of steam-turbine technology, incremental performance enhancements require significant new technology investments. By sharing in the development, GE and MHI will look to share best practices and development activities to bring a next-generation combined-cycle steam turbine product to market faster than either party could individually achieve.’

In addition to current applications, both companies have said that they may consider co-developing a steam turbine for nuclear-power generation.