General Electric Co established its third China Innovation Center at the Science and Technology Mansion in Harbin on Wednesday, aiming at improving the company's technical localization and collaboration.

The center was designed to build a co-development platform with its Chinese partner, Harbin Electric, and to work together to develop innovations, improve the overall performance of gas turbines and bring combined-cycle power plant solutions to China, according to a company statement.

This is GE's third specially designed customer innovation center in China, following Chengdu and Xi'an.

"The GE Harbin Innovation Center is creating a new platform for technical collaboration," John Rice, vice-chairman of GE, said in the statement. "GE is committed to supporting the transformation and advancement of the Chinese gas power market through collaborative innovation."

Rising energy-related issues, such as air pollution, have been making China seek higher energy efficiency and increased natural gas consumption among its primary energy mix.

The government has also set a target to increase the percentage of both clean energy and distributed power.

Gas-powered energy becomes an important alternative in the coal-dominant market because gas is cleaner and more flexible.

The establishment of the new center will allow GE to accelerate the localization of its advanced technologies by leveraging the strong capabilities of Harbin Electric in turbine, power generation and waste heat boilers.

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