GENI Summary for 2008

Marketing: Changing the global conversation regarding renewable energy and the transmission grid

Marketing: Changing the global conversation regarding Renewable Energy and the Transmission Grid

We actively marketed the GENI Initiative and projects; sent monthly GENI-us newsletter, via mail and email; and mailed and/or emailed these intern research papers to appropriate government or country leaders:

• Rural Electrification in Afghanistan. March, 2008.
• Renewable Energy Potential of Small Island Nations. August, 2008.
• A Comparison of the Energy Policies of the Presidential Candidates. December, 2008.
• The Case for Meeting the Millennium Development Goals through Access to Clean Electricity. December, 2008 (not yet published)

We completed an 80 page transcript for the GENI Book.

An intern converted the GENI CD, "There is no energy crisis" to a PowerPoint Presentation.  July, 2008.

Through a project of two GENI interns, we now have a presence on numerous social networking sites, including Facebook and MySpace. August, 2008.

As part of World Resource Simulation Center (WRSC) under development, two talented interns completed GENI's first Global Visualization Comparisons of the GENI Initiative in both the Flash version and SDSU’s WMS server version. July & August, 2008.

We completed and submitted a revised WRSC proposal to BFI Challenge Grant for the second year.

Peter Meisen was invited to debate The Global Energy Crisis on economist.com Aug 19 - 29, 2008. The proposition: "This house believes that we can solve our energy problems with existing technologies today, without the need for breakthrough innovations." Peter debated Joseph Romm and was asked to speak against the proposition.

We continue to update articles on global trends in Renewable Energy Resources and on Transmission grids on our website. We have added Energy Issues to our Library. This consolidates Transmission Grid maps, renewable energy information and much more on each country (in progress).

Conferences, Tele-seminars and Affiliations: Taking the GENI Initiative to world and industry leaders

Peter started the year with a visit, sponsored by Rotary, to India and visited the Tata Energy Research Institute (directed by Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the UN IPCC) and presented the GENI Initiative in January, 2008.

In March, Peter attended and exhibited at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference in DC.

We started the "On Fuller Living" tele-seminar series in March as a fund raiser and to draw new traffic to GENI.

Peter attended the Buckminister Fuller Institute launch of the Challenge Grant. June, 2008.

GENI coordinated a panel on Digital Earth at the annual meeting of the IEEE in July, 2008 and presented a paper documenting the building of the Global Visualization Comparison mentioned above.

Administration: Providing the structure and support that make everything else possible

 With the contribution of 8 computers from Computers 2 SD Kids, we upgraded 90% of our hardware. Software DonorPerfect and Maximizer were upgraded.

 Core Staff: Patricia Stevens and Paul-Michael Dekker also cultivated 44 new interns in 2008.

 We now have an RSS feed for all new articles posted to the Library. We had 351,000 unique visitors to www.geni.org and 1360 GENI-us subscribers to our e-newsletter. 

Financial: Driving the shift in global investing to fund Renewable Energy and the Interconnected Grids

KLD Global Climate 100 (GC100) now has $300 million invested; GENI continues to get quarterly partnership contributions.  Through the work of a regular volunteer, GENI has been rigorously marketing the KLD GC100 Index to institutional investors and the Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) community.