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With government and business leaders assembled this week in Sydney, Australia for the 2010 National Smart Grid Forum, GE today released the results of a new consumer survey. One of the key challenges that emerged is that the majority of Australian consumers, much like their U.S. counterparts, don’t know what a smart grid is — pointing to the critical need for the industry to focus attention on consumer awareness. However, in an encouraging sign for adoption of smart grid technologies, the survey found that of those Australians who are familiar with the term, they are ready to embrace it. As Bob Gilligan, vice president of transmission and distribution for GE Energy, told the group in his keynote address: “Energy costs as a percentage of take home pay have been on a decline for 25 out of last 30 years, but over the last five years that trend has reversed itself.” Citing new estimates that show electricity prices in parts of Australia are expected to rise by up to 64 percent over the next three years, Bob said that “these increases are resulting in consumers who have traditionally been unconcerned about their electricity bills … now focusing on what they can do to influence their spend on electricity.”

Contributor Heiner Markhoff is President and CEO — Water & Process Technologies for GE Power & Water.

While World Water Day only comes one day a year, each and everyday one billion people still don’t have access to sanitary water and those numbers are growing. This number serves as an alarm to us all that we must address the global threat. Fortunately, the technologies exist today that can help reduce freshwater consumption, improve water reuse and impact change. Just as we recycle newspapers and plastic bottles, technology can help us overcome our water challenges if we have the collective will to employ these tools.

Yesterday, GE Global Research, which is the hub of technology development for all of GE’s businesses, announced that in the race to have the most efficient, low-cost solar technology on the market, GE is now focusing its extensive R&D efforts on what’s known as “thin film” technology. As we described in our recent audio slideshow with Danielle Merfeld, GE’s solar R&D leader, the vision for thin film solar panels is that they will be lightweight, inexpensive and can one day be wrapped around objects, conform to a roof, or even hung like sails. GE is stepping up the pace of its thin film work in conjunction with PrimeStar Solar Inc., which is an Arvada, Colorado-based startup firm in which GE is a majority investor. As you can see in the audio slideshow below, unlocking the secrets of the complex technology with PrimeStar is a job that is uniting GE’s network of four Global Research Centers — and drawing on the unique expertise found in each.

GE’s sponsorship of the Ronald Reagan Centennial Celebration kicked-off yesterday, with a number of tributes to the 40^th President — from friends and former colleagues to some of the 250,000 GE employees he visited during his eight years as a GE goodwill ambassador. Among those highlighting the rapport forged with GE staffers over the years — and the role GE played in Reagan’s life — was author Thomas W. Evans, who writes on GE’s Reagan Centennial website: “Hugh Sidey of Time/Life, who covered every president from Eisenhower through George W. Bush, commented that he thought Reagan’s speeches in England and Russia were the finest ever given abroad by an American leader. When he asked a White House speechwriter who had written these offerings, he was told: ‘Reagan. They were actually pretty much the speeches he had given when he worked for General Electric.’”

Long before he ran for office, Ronald Reagan served as the host of the weekly TV series, General Electric Theater — and as a GE goodwill ambassador from 1954 to 1962. He also traveled to 139 GE plants — inspiring employees with his optimism, entrepreneurial spirit and a belief in innovation. Building on that shared history, GE today announced that it will partner with The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation to become the Presenting Sponsor of the historic Ronald Reagan Centennial Celebration — which is a two-year-long commemoration of President Reagan’s 100th birthday on February 6, 2011. This morning, GE announced details of its $15 million sponsorship — including a fund that will provide 200 four-year college scholarships over the next decade. Later today at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, GE’s Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt will give a talk – which can be viewed live at 6 p.m. Pacific time on the Library’s website — with former First Lady Nancy Reagan among those in attendance.