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Energy Executives Get a Glimpse of GENI

About 3000 engineers, utility executives, energy ministers and World Bank specialists gathered in Tokyo in October for a full week of discussions on the topic, "Energy for our Common Future."

The 1995 edition of the World Energy Conference also featured an exhibit of the work of Global Energy Network International (GENI). (And in a bit of guerrilla marketing, the latter posted the Dymaxion Map with grid, quotes and energy statistics on every message board!)

The World Energy Council, sponsor of the conference, is a global organization of industry executives responsible for developing and implementing energy policy. It convenes only once every three years, because the wheels of change spin slowly in this industry.

Once again, environmental protection was low on the agenda, reflecting the view of most conferees that renewable energy scenarios are still "a prospect for the future."

In many sessions, however, GENI did submit questions to the panelists regarding the benefits of electrical interconnections. And at one workshop on long-range energy prospects, a couple of panelists spoke at length about a global energy grid linking renewable energy resources.

Utility executives and energy thinkers came by GENI's booth hour after hour to learn about this global solution. Others were well aware of regional interconnections but didn't realize how far transmission distances have been expanded.

All projections show sharply increasing energy demand in the next 20 years, due mostly to population growth in the developing world. The GENI proposal thus elicits growing interest as a means of linking remote renewable energy sources around the world.

Critical to this proposal is the "what-if" research work GENI is advocating. For example, these are some of the stipulations that will be factored into an Asian computer simulation model:

As this work progresses, GENI comes more and more to be seen as a feasible solution to the complex problem of how to provide affordable, clean energy to a growing world population.

GENI can be reached at P.O. Box 81565, San Diego, CA USA.


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