Issues and prospects for the development of renewable energy and energy efficiency were discussed by participants at the 26th International Scientific and Practical Conference “Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in the 21st Century,” held at Igor Sikorsky KPI from May 21 to 23.
It was organized by the Institute of Renewable Energy (IVE) of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, the Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the International Science and Technology Center for Renewable and Hydrogen Energy Technology Transfer, the Representative Office of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kyiv, Warsaw University of Technology, the Ukrainian Hydrogen Council Energy Association, the IVE Interdisciplinary Scientific and Technical Center for Wind Energy, the UNESCO Chair in Higher Technical Education, Applied Systems Analysis, and Informatics at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, NNC “Institute of Applied System Analysis”, Institute of Technical Thermophysics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Institute of General Energy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ukrainian National Committee on Heat and Mass Transfer. It was supported by a number of reputable organizations, from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine to the UNIDO/GEF Project “Global Innovation Program for Environmentally Friendly Technologies for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Ukraine,” IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, and others. And, of course, the most active role in its organization and conduct belonged to the Faculty of Electrical Power Engineering and Automation of KPI and its Department of Renewable Energy Sources (VDE).
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“Despite the difficult times for our country and the world,” said Stepan Kudria, corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, director of the Institute of Renewable Energy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and scientific director of the VDE Department of the FEA, welcoming the conference participants, “we continue to actively cooperate in the direction of intensifying scientific research. Although the Russian Federation's armed aggression against Ukraine has had a negative impact on the entire renewable energy sector, new challenges have given impetus to finding and adopting new solutions and tools for the further support and development of renewable energy technologies." He identified the main tasks of modern science in the field of energy and energy efficiency: solving scientific, technical, and technological problems related to the development of renewable energy sources, increasing the efficiency of energy equipment and its comprehensive use, reducing the cost of energy produced, creating innovative models for dispatching electricity distribution, reliably forecasting electricity and heat production, and introducing technologies for their accumulation, in particular based on hydrogen.
"Many educators and scientists at Igor Sikorsky KPI are involved in the development and implementation of new innovative energy projects, including those aimed at the wider use of renewable energy sources, based on three departments of our university and the Technical Library named after G.I. Denisenko, where a project has been implemented for the introduction and operation of photovoltaic systems for guaranteed power supply, which, in addition to meeting production needs, are also used during the educational process," emphasized the rector of our university, Anatoliy Melnychenko. It is symbolic that in the 1980s, under the leadership of the then rector of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Hryhorii Denysenko, one of the first systems of combined use of renewable energy sources was created at the Desna research and testing ground. The rector also recalled that Igor Sikorsky KPI has a successful Department of Renewable Energy, which has been training qualified specialists in all promising areas of this scientific field for over 20 years. Teachers and scientists of the department, together with Ukrainian and foreign colleagues, cooperate in improving technologies and projects of renewable and green hydrogen energy, which are currently undergoing rapid development in the world and are considered a promising alternative to fossil fuels.
During the plenary session, conference participants were greeted by the former rector of Igor Sikorsky KPI, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Mykhailo Zgurovsky, Academician-Secretary of the Department of Energy and Energy Technologies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Oleksandr Kyrylenko, President of the Small Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Stanislav Dovgy, Vice President and Member of the Board of the Ukrainian Hydrogen Council Energy Association Oleksandr Repkin, and Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Power Engineering and Automation of Igor Sikorsky KPI Vasyl Budko.
Researchers from KPI took an active part in the conference, including Oleksandr Ostapchuk, Head of the Department of Renewable Energy Sources at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Professor Volodymyr Golovko, Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Automation Vasyl Budko, Serhiy Boichenko, Head of the Department of Automation of Electrical Engineering and Mechatronic Systems at the Institute of Electrical Engineering, and others. The research, the progress and results of which they reported on, is being conducted very intensively, and the International Scientific and Practical Conference “Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in the 21st Century” confirmed this. Scientists discussed the problems and prospects of using renewable sources, electrical and bioenergy resources, the Earth's heat, and heat supply in Ukraine using solar, wind, hydroelectric, biofuel, and hydrogen energy. Special attention was paid to the problems of Ukraine's energy transition to 100% RES, reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Ukraine to 80% of 1990 levels by 2050, abandoning coal, and transitioning to 100% RES in electricity and heat production by 2050.
It should be noted that this scientific forum is focused on solving both long-term tasks for the further development of renewable energy and providing the population with environmentally friendly energy, as well as solving pressing problems related to the preservation and restoration of energy. Therefore, it identified the characteristics of the current stage of RES development in Ukraine: changes in the conditions of the domestic energy sector and the entire economy, joint work with the European energy system, taking into account the losses and damage suffered by domestic energy facilities, and, in general, for the country – the need to restore and sustainably supply energy to the economy, taking into account the consequences of military actions and the need to rebuild the material base and organizational foundations on a modern basis.
As the text of the conference resolution states, its participants “created a platform for the implementation of scientific and practical experience in the field of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency in scientific research, design, industrial, and business structures of the public and private sectors.”
What are the priority measures and most relevant areas of research in this joint endeavor? Among the promising areas are the rational location of energy capacities, taking into account the possibilities of distributed generation, and sustainable combined local energy systems with renewable sources of various types. In addition, it is necessary to coordinate the pace of renewable energy implementation and the regulatory capabilities of the energy system, in particular, the introduction of energy storage systems, forecasting, and load management. It is now time to apply innovative methods of hydrogen production and hydrogen technologies in energy and other industries, in public utilities, and in transport, which are resistant to negative external influences. Of course, it is also necessary to focus efforts on developing and improving the regulatory, certification, and metrological framework, taking into account international experience and in line with the current and future needs of the domestic energy sector. The current tasks for government agencies, the scientific community, and public organizations are to ensure the reconstruction of the energy sector based on the principles of sustainable development, decarbonization of the economy, and prevention of negative climate change, as well as to bring educational and training programs in line with modern requirements and to attract best practices, taking into account global trends. A positive example is the cooperation between Ukrainian scientists and practitioners with the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL) within the framework of the “Sustainable Energy Systems of Ukraine” project.
It is equally important to ensure that all structures and segments of the population have access to reliable information about the advantages of using various types of renewable energy sources, their role in the development of the energy sector, and environmental safety.
Today, the government and our country's international partners are developing a joint vision for Ukraine's post-war recovery. This is not only about overcoming the direct consequences of the war, but also about the country's medium-term development strategy. Decentralization of the energy system? Yes. Rebuilding infrastructure with energy efficiency in mind? Definitely. But a key part of rebuilding with renewable energy sources should be a “zero pollution” strategy, which means getting production waste down to zero after the war, especially for urban services.
The conference was also attended by very young researchers and inventors from the Junior Academy of Sciences, who worked in the “Young Scientists” section, created in 2017 as a joint initiative of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and KPI. What are young men and women from different parts of Ukraine interested in and working on? The topics of the poster presentations spoke for themselves: “Innovative approaches to improving energy efficiency in the residential sector of Donetsk region” (K. Ivanyura, O. Donchenko, Zorya village, Donetsk region), “Optimization of the selection of building materials for shelters, taking into account environmental and energy efficiency aspects” (V. Kozlova, O. Shandrygina from Lyceum No. 11, Khmelnytskyi), “Problems of waste disposal at the local level and the geography of unauthorized landfills” (A. Piddubny, Lyceum No. 3, Zhovti Vody), “Research on solar energy accumulation” (M. Sinyavsky, V. Yermolenko from the Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity, Bila Tserkva), etc.
...This conference is a unique platform for cooperation between Ukrainian and foreign scientists, where both talented young people and experienced scientists have the opportunity to make themselves known. This was evidenced by the useful and detailed reports and presentations given during the three days of the forum.