You might recall the G8 summit in Gleneagles,
UK in 2005. Former British Prime Minister Tony
Blair was host, and he set the agenda, making
Aid to Africa and Climate Change the key topics.
Unfortunately, bombings in London put a damper
on those discussions.
We had high hopes for that meeting as we had
mailed our proposal to all G8 members and advisors
just one month prior. Our goal was to get the
world's leading economies to consider the GENI
Initiative as a priority solution to
the increasing global CO2 emissions. This
year the International Energy Agency is preparing
a report to the G8 members entitled, "The
Integration of Renewable Energy into Electricity
Grids." Someone heard our message!
A couple of important points are made in the
draft report. First, that solar and wind are
variable output technologies, therefore not
always dispatchable when we need the power.
Spain and France have resolved this by spreading
their solar and wind farms widely across their
nations. Also stated, that national boundaries
are decreasing in relevance to electricity systems
as interconnection among neighboring nations
increases. Sound familiar?
This month, European Union Energy Commissioner
Andris Peibalgs announced an agreement between
France, Germany, Belgium, Luxemburg and the
Netherlands to form a single integrated electricity
market on 2009. It is projected that this
cooperative market will mean lower prices to
consumers, increased trade and security of electricity
supply.
This work of the G8 will spread to all 26 members
of the OECD, and by association to all the neighboring
states of those economies. The energy strategy
of "linking renewable energy resources around
the world" will soon become the policy of
most nations. This project is engineeringly
feasible, and makes economic, environmental,
social and political sense. It's now time for
all nations to follow the lead of these five
EU leaders.
In partnership for the planet,
