Subject matters of the International Scientific and Practical Conference "Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in the XXI Century", which took place for the twenty-third time at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute on May 19-20, has recently become not only relevant, but also literally burning. After all, energy blackmail of the whole world, which russia resorted to after the start of a large-scale war against Ukraine, forced civilized countries to accelerate the work of decarbonization of their economies significantly and start working actively to introduce all possible technologies for renewable energy sources.
Renewable energy: there is no alternative!
Of course, this work began much earlier than February 24, 2022. It was prompted by the need to implement the principles of sustainable development in the economic practices of countries with their emphasis on environmental aspects and social responsibility in the use of resources. But it is the criminal activities of modern russia, to which the world that preferred to do business with it "as usual", turned a blind eye until recently; after its attack on Ukraine, it became the catalyst for increasing attention to "green" energy by government, business and NGOs of different countries. Evidence of this is even the list of institutions, unions, associations and other Ukrainian and international structures that organized the conference or supported its holding in one way or another. Suffice it to say that only its organizers included 11 different institutions, not only Ukrainian, and 21 organizations provided it with support, including information. And, traditionally, one of the main partners of the conference was the Representative bodies of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Ukraine, Kyiv. And 212 people registered to participate in the conference: scientists, practitioners, students, graduate students and even schoolchildren, as the program also included poster presentations of members of the Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. That is, the number of participants was very significant as in wartime.
"Ukraine, Europe and the whole world are facing huge energy challenges. And in this situation, the work of your scientific schools is very important. After all, there are huge problems with organic energy resources, which will only grow. At the same time, the extremely difficult situation in the country did not become an obstacle for scientific, innovative, and educational activities of our university and the Institute of Renewable Energy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, which has always been close to us, - Rector of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Academician of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Michael Zgurovsky spoke welcoming the conference participants. - "Our university is always open to cooperation, exchange of research results, experience of practical implementation of technologies in the field, which, in the end, will help increase the level of research in it and the professional level of its specialists."
Of course, the work of the conference was held online, but the speeches of the participants did not lose relevance. In general, the XXIII International Scientific and Practical Conference "Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in the XXI Century" worked in several sections: "Hydrogen Power'', "Energy Efficiency", "Solar Power", "Hydropower and Wind Power", "Geothermal Power”, and “Biomass Energy” which covered almost the entire range of modern technologies of "green" energy. However, the main, so to speak, fundamental reports for this scientific meeting were delivered in plenary sessions. The first one was delivered by Stepan Kudrya, Director of IRE NAS of Ukraine, Head of Inter-Branch Scientific and Technical Center of Wind Power at IRE NASU, Head of the Department for Renewable Energy at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. In his report he outlined the main trends and prospects for the development of this industry and its subsectors in Ukraine and the world, as well as provided information on the pace of its implementation. In fact, the speaker combined two topics - "Renewable energy: no alternative" (materials were prepared by the representative of the Institute of Renewable Energy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Nver Mkhitaryan) and "Green hydrogen: science, education, technology, cooperation" (prepared by Stepan Kudrya). It should be noted that the issues and problems of hydrogen power, which are very promising for Ukraine in general, ran like a golden thread through the reports and messages of many participants.
So, according to Stepan Kudrya, in 2022 the world will receive about 30% of energy from RES. The main contribution here will be made by hydropower (approximately 16%), but there is already a clear tendency to increase the share of wind energy in the overall energy balance (6%), solar (3%), bioenergy (2%). The rest of the energy comes from the use of other types of RES. At the same time, the volumes of investments that are currently directed to "green" energy are very eloquent: recently their volume has reached more than 69% of total revenues in the energy sector. World trends do not bypass Ukraine either. We have the greatest progress in the development of solar energy, especially in the southern regions of the country. In general, this year our country should receive about 14% from RES (in 2020 it was 11%). At the same time, according to the calculations of scientists from the Institute of Renewable Energy, the potential of RES in Ukraine is huge and tends to grow: as the speaker said, this is due to improved energy equipment and continuous improvement of its efficiency.
Adoption of hydrogen energy as an important tool of economic revitalization in Ukraine
The adoption of hydrogen energy is probably of particular interest to Ukraine today. And, more broadly, the construction of a "hydrogen economy" technologically based on the use of "green" hydrogen. In fact, the creation of such an economy on the European continent is the goal of the new development strategy of the European Union presented at the end of 2019 - the European Green Course, one of the two components of which is the EU Hydrogen Strategy. It prioritizes the production of so-called "renewable" hydrogen, i.e., that obtained by electrolysis using renewable energy sources, mainly wind and solar.
Why was hydrogen chosen as a basic element of the new energy strategy? Because it is an extremely energy-intensive resource. Hydrogen burns at the same temperature as natural gas, but its combustion emits almost 3.5 times more heat per unit mass than the combustion of oil or coal. It can be transported both by pipelines, at the same speed as hydrocarbons, and by means of containers for compressed or liquefied gas, of course, when it is cooled to ultra-low temperatures. That is, the use of hydrogen as an energy carrier and resource will reduce the dependence of economies on fossil fuels. It will also reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere, as only water is the product of its combustion.
By the way, about water. Stepan Kudrya rejected the claim of environmentalists, who recently began to write that the production of hydrogen in Ukraine would require huge amounts of water, which is a very important natural resource for the state. But the research of scientists of IRE NASU proved that these needs, even with the full use of the potential of "green" hydrogen, will require no more than 0.36% of annual water runoff in Ukraine. For comparison, 5.3% of annual runoff resources are currently spent on the needs of traditional electricity, national industry, etc. Today, of course, there is the problem of the cost of green hydrogen production, but from year to year it is declining.
Oleksandr Repkin, President of the Association Ukrainian Hydrogen Council, also spoke about the importance of the transition to hydrogen energy for Ukraine. His report "The future transformation of world energy. The formation of the green hydrogen market, new projects and Ukraine's role in ensuring the EU's energy security", as its name implies, covered a wide range of issues, but, of course, emphasis was also placed on hydrogen energy in our country and its independence from russian fossil energy sources. "Hydrogen is one of the most important vectors of Ukraine's revival. After our victory we will have to rebuild a significant part of Ukraine's energy system and sectors of the economy from scratch. And this gives an opportunity to attract significant investments to our country and to get included in the programs of restoration of enterprises for the production of environmentally friendly steel and other materials, the demand for which is growing rapidly in Europe, "said Oleksandr Repkin.
The Hydrogen Strategy of Ukraine has already been developed at the Institute of Renewable Energy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. It was presented to the participants of the conference by the head of the department of this scientific organization Muhub Benmenni. The main goals of the Strategy are to provide a significant share of the needs of all sectors of Ukraine's economy in environmentally friendly energy; development of carbon-free economy as a priority of state policy and reduction of fossil fuel consumption and improvement of the environment; strengthening energy independence which is strengthening the political and economic independence of Ukraine; transformation of Ukraine from an object of international trade into a subject of strategic policy in the EU and the world, as well as accelerating the integration of Ukraine into the political, economic and security structures of the EU and NATO.
Results of the conference: recommendations for authorities and experts
In general, each of the speeches made at the conference contained interesting and necessary information for specialists in various fields. Of course, most of the reports, especially those delivered during the breakout sessions, focused on specific issues of RES use or development and implementation of new technologies in the field of renewable energy, building mathematical models of certain processes and methods of calculating their parameters, and problems and prospects of further scaling up the achievements of this industry, etc. In a word, to all the aspects of its development that scientists and civil engineers of the civilized world are currently working on. So, it makes no sense to write about it in detail in the newspaper: those interested can read the presentations of the conference participants on the website of the Institute of Renewable Energy of NASU at: https://www.ive.org.ua/?page_id=3922&lang=uk.
As the conference was not purely scientific, but scientific and practical, its resolution concerned primarily practical issues of renewable energy development. This was emphasized in the preamble of the document: "Conference participants create a platform for the implementation of scientific and practical experience in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency into research, design, industrial and business structures of the public and private sectors." Then the most promising areas of research for the industry and the implementation of their results were identified; aspects that should be focused on in order to expand the use of RES in Ukraine to state structures, the scientific community and public organizations; some urgent work in this area and other issues. The full text of the resolution is also posted on the institute's website.