Issue: We jumped the gun, telling them about GreenStar before having an MOU in place.

Solar Genie

A Sun-Powered Remote Community Center

Actualizing the Potential of Digital Convergence for Telemedicine, Distance Education, and Electronic Commerce

EcoSage Corporation has developed relationships with established Business-Education Partnerships consisting of public utilities, post-secondary institutions, and school districts to collaborate on project-based learning experiences for the development, construction, and maintenance of mobile, multi-purpose community centers for the benefit of remote (off the electrical grid) Native American villages in the U.S. and subsequently for remote villages around the world. EcoSage is offering Sun Microsystems the opportunity to participate with its new Jini^® technology as a member of the EcoSage Business-Education partnership.

EcoSage Corporation will provide technical assistance -- project specifications, curriculum development, in-service training for teachers, project management, etc. -- and is requesting funding and technical communications (Jini) assistance for the construction and on-going maintenance of the unit (see illustration) in collaboration with EcoSage proposed program partners: GreenStar Foundation (www.greenstar.org), The U.S. Department of Energy, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, National Science Foundation's Strategic Systems Initiative for Education, A-S-E Americas, Global Connections, and the United Nations Development Programme.

The community center will focus on medical services, improved education, and economic development. Program start-up, primarily project planning and fund raising, will commence soon, and will be implemented in the following stages:

1. Winter 99: Project Planning and Business-Education Partnership Development; Fund raising; Curriculum Development; Identification of Native American Village.
2. Spring 99: Construction Plans; Professional Development for Teachers; Curriculum Implementation.
   
3. Summer 99: Construction of Community Center; Training of village support staff.
   
4. Fall 99: Deployment, Unit service, and Program Evaluation.

More details:

• Unit Specifications: The mobile unit will be approximately 8’ wide and 20’ long. A 4 kilowatt photovoltaic sytems will be installed on the roof. The unit will have a remote communications capability and five networked computers. The functional features of the unit will include refrigeration for medicine, internet communications, water purification, and media support for education, all linked into a seamless networked environment using Sun's new Jini^® technology.
  
• Construction: The vocational technical program building the unit will construct and install all component systems.
  
• Support: An on-going, business education community will support the field operations of the unit. This will include professional development for teachers, distance learning programs, telemedicine, and community economic development.
  

For more information, contact Ron Swenson at 831.425.8523, Allan Baer at 802.685.3450, or Lloyd Rodenbaugh at 760.776.3300. Thank you for your interest in the Solar Genie project.

The following attachments were included:

1. SolarQuest home page
2. Schematic picture of GreenStar unit