Energy development in the context of international business activity is no longer something that is ineffective and of purely academic and abstract interest. As resources are limited and approaches to the use of them are outdated, more and more academics, and not only they, begin to work on the new approaches to the consumption and generation of “green fuels.” The world is aware of the problem. For example, the Bloomberg agency estimates that the aggregate investment in energy technologies will reach 14 trillion dollars by 2040.
Ukraine is standing a good chance to receive a considerable part of these investments. Ukrainian energy enthusiasts are sure that innovations and… creativity will help in this matter. “Very often people look on energy as an uninteresting dinosaur. We want to prove that it is wrong. We want to show that energy is top class and interesting, it is open to creativity. It is a field that can be open, and in which people can realize themselves and democratize energy development,” says Roman Zinchenko, coordinator of Greencubator, the Ukrainian energy innovations network.
Six years ago he and some like-minded people sent a challenge to energy monopolies and began to teach Ukrainians a new type of energy-related thinking based on freedom and democracy.
In the time span, the team of energy volunteers has carried out a lot of energy projects, including Tesla Camp. This “solar energy camp” was active for two years near the city. Young enthusiasts in different walks of life discussed new energy schemes for two days in the open air, using solar-powered devices and the field Internet, living in tents, and eating bonfire-cooked food.
This time, energy camp organizers decided to gather about 20 mentors and 200 software developers, young entrepreneurs, biologists, and public activists not on the Desna’s banks but “at the sky’s shore,” i.e., on the roof of a Kyiv building. “We’ve understood this year that we must go further on. It’s not enough to just go to the countryside, lay out solar batteries, and pitch a makeshift camp there. We want to establish a permanent milieu that will produce energy talents,” Zinchenko explains.
ENERGY MATTERS CAN BE INTERESTING AND EASY, TESLA CAMP 2015 ORGANIZERS ARE SAYING. MORE THAN 30 MENTORS SPOKE IN THE TWO DAYS OF THE ENERGY MARATHON, AND OVER 200 VISITORS CAME TO HEAR THEM
There are a lot of these talents in Ukraine. For example, two years ago Tesla Camp brought forth the Ecois.me smart energy management system, one of Ukraine’s most successful startups. “We are now on the threshold of a new era – the birth of a totally new industry in Ukraine – the energy saving industry. This industry can solve problems at many enterprises and secure a billions-dollars-worth profit. This can also revitalize Ukraine in terms of energy,” Zinchenko says assuredly.
Another, no less successful, “green” startup with a label “Made in Ukraine” is DelFast. This service can make a delivery of goods within an hour at most. This delivery is particular in that the thing you ordered will be brought over not only very fast, but also on… an electric bike. Among DelFast’s best-known customers are Privatbank and New Mail. “We’ve carried out a project at the intersection of technologies. We’ve offered a new type of logistics – while others deliver things ‘later,’ we do it ‘now,’ because an hour means precisely this. Secondly, it is an energy-effective and energy-independent transport,” says Danylo Tonkopii, the startup’s founder.
While traditional startups are usually aimed at solving a local problem, Zenyk Matchyshyn offers solutions for a global problem. His service of accessible analysis and optimization of expenditures for energy resources, uMuni, helps residents of not only Lviv, but also other cities of the region to save electric energy. “We hit upon an idea to help the city switch from monthly to daily payment for the consumed electricity. In other words, we have switched to a daily collection of information in schools, daycare facilities, hospitals, stores, etc. – 4,500 structures in communal ownership,” Matchyshyn explains. In his words, this makes it possible to save at least five percent of electricity with due account of the growing rates.
Tesla Camp traditionally displayed the latest makes of Ukrainian electric cars, which you could drive and see that it was easy and comfortable to do so. Incidentally, 200 electric cars have been registered in Ukraine over the past six months.
FORUM SPEAKERS BELIEVE THAT, TO SPEED UP THE GROWTH OF THE NUMBER OF ELECTRIC CARS, IT IS NECESSARY TO SET UP AN ADEQUATE INFRASTRUCTURE OF ELECTRICITY CHARGING STATIONS
Eco-electric transport enthusiasts emphasize that their number can only increase if there is a well-ramified chain of charging stations. “Ukraine statistics show that there were very few electric cars in Ukraine before December 2014, when Tesla Club and the company OKKO opened a network of charging stations. Now that the infrastructure has been improved, you can see more electric cars on highways. We decided to compare these data to those in Norway and saw a regular pattern: the more developed the infrastructure is, the more electric cars it has. The European experience shows that every recharge can serve 10 cars of this type, while in the US the figure is about 30,” Electro Cars cofounder Oleksandr Kravtsov says. It will be recalled that the Electro Cars team took part in this year’s electro vehicle marathon Kyiv – Monte Carlo.
“We need a network that covers the city within a radius of one kilometer,” Viacheslav Shevnin, manager of the Ukrainian branch of Ensto Building Technology, adds. In his words, it is also necessary to set up charging stations of different types, depending on the place of location. For example, home-oriented stations can be less powerful because they will be charging cars all night long, while the office-oriented ones must be, on the contrary, more powerful to be able to charge a car in shorter period of time. “Once Ukraine has a sufficient number of charge points, people will be no longer afraid to buy electric cars,” Shevnin forecasts.
In the end, Tesla Camp presented the projects of a two-day hackathon, while mentors continued to speak. For example, the guys from Boost Lab (Kharkiv) decided to make school-taught physics more interesting and invented a portable Gauss rifle.
“We are going to share expertise with these teams, to help them find interesting areas for implementing their ideas and present these projects at the next-stage hackathon. We can consult them,” Zinchenko says. Very soon, teams will take part in the next stage of “Hack4energy,” a hackathon which is also held on the initiative of Greencubator. Incidentally, its organizers managed to hold hackathons simultaneously in 11 cities of Ukraine.
“We want a hundred ‘live’ energy companies to come up here within three years. This will create a new market and enormous possibilities for using human talent and attracting money. It is important that new leaders come. To be able to lead, they should be aware of present-day challenges and their own capabilities. The challenges are quite serious. It is an ineffective, difficult, and monopolized sector. But let us be optimistic. Tesla Camp is, to some extent, for optimists, for those who can believe that it is possible to be a creator on the energy market,” Zinchenko says in conclusion.
