Global Energy Prize laureates spoke on new ideas capable of defining future of Power branch

15 October, 2021, laureates of the Global Energy Prize gave lecturesat MPEI on actual issues of world power development.

Prize laureates are power engineering scientists: physicists, chemists, engineers, geologists, constructors. All of them made breakthrough discoveries or developed nuclear power, thermal engineering, semiconductors, renewable resources and were given the International Energy Prize Global Energy. The level of issues solved by them is global.

The colloquium involved three laureates of the Global Energy Prize:

• Professor Suleiman Allakhverdiev, Head of the Photosynthesis Laboratory of the Institute of Plant Physiology named Timiryazev (Russia), awarded in the category “Non-traditional energy” (2021) for his outstanding contribution to the development of alternative energy, scientific achievements in the design of artificial photosynthesis systems, as well as a series of scientific works in the field of bioenergy and hydrogen energy;
• Dr. Yi Tsui, Director of the Precourt Institute of Energy at Stanford University (USA), Co-Director of the StorageX Initiative, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, recipient of the New Uses of Energy Award (2021) for exceptional contributions to the development, synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials for energy and environment, especially transformational innovation in bacterial science;
• Professor Nikolaos Hatziargiriou, Director of the National Technical University of Athens (Greece), laureate of the Global Energy Prize in the New Ways of Using Energy (2020) for his contribution to the stabilization of power grids, the development of smart power grids and micro-grids using artificial intelligence.

The meeting was held in the Conference Hall of MPEI and was carried out in English. The speakers presented their reports on breakthrough research in alternative energy, decarbonisation and new ways of energy use.

The report of Professor Suleiman Allakhverdiev was dedicated to the processes of photosynthesis for acquiring molecular hydrogen. In his opinion, hydrogen engineering is two times cheaper than synthetic fuel. The complete transition to hydrogen energy would mean the reduction of harmful influence on the environment and positive course on its restoration. One of the prospects of it is obtaining hydrogen through the photosynthesis procedure. In the Laboratory of the Institute of Plant Physiology named Timiryazev the hybrid system was created that is using this procedure to get molecular hydrogen, with manganum as a catalyst. This system models the process of natural photosynthesis, but still the work on artificial photosynthesis is in the initial stages. The water is split into oxygen and hydrogen. The efficiency of the laboratory installation is 30-40%, which means that the scientists should search and create the catalysts that are more efficient.

The report of Dr. Yi Tsui was on the use of nanotechnologies for sustainable development, e.g. high-energy batteries that can be used in customer electronics as well as electromobiles and carried devices. The new batteries are much more efficient than the batteries of the past generation, they work on silicon and lithium. New materials can give a 10 times increase of the battery capacity and reduce its cost at the same time. An important goal is to create new systems for industrial energy storage. Another peculiar thing is to create clothes with heating and cooling. Cooling and heating of buildings consumes 13% of the world's energy. If the comfort temperature is reduced by 3 degrees, it would economize up to 30% of electric power. The transition from building to individual condition is possible as well.

Electric networks are now in a phase of transition from centralized generation to receiving energy from a multitude of sources. Nikolaos Hatziargiriou reported on the integrated power systems of the future that include systems of energy transfer, storage and transformation as well as energy consumers that actively produce electric power. The analysts predict the ultimate growth of solar batteries’  technologies in the nearest decades. In 2040 the share of RES is to exceed the share of other sources. This is a serious challenge for energy systems and for their sustainable work, to reverse the energy flows, monitoring capacities and control: management, generation, transformation, consumption and storage of electric power in all the energy centers are to be conducted hand by hand with the automation, integration and monitoring of the highest grade.

The laureates agreed that MPEI has all the resources to give strong support to the future of power engineering. The University can contribute to the development of green energy that would open new opportunities for Russians and Russian economy growth. In particular, Russia has prospects of becoming one of the leaders in the hydrogen production for the new energy development and in the international renewable energy cooperation.

The link to the lecture is available here.

The International Global Energy Prize is an award for outstanding research and development in the field of energy, which contributes to the efficiency and environmental safety of energy sources on Earth for the benefit of all mankind. The Global Energy Prize stimulates the development of energy as a science and demonstrates the importance of international energy cooperation, as well as public and private investments in the field of energy supply, energy conservation and energy security of the planet. According to the International Observatory IREG, the Global Energy Prize is in the TOP-99 of the most prestigious and significant international awards. Since 2003, 45 scientists from 15 countries have become laureates of the award: Australia, Austria, Great Britain, Greece, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Canada, Russia, USA, France, Switzerland, Sweden and Japan.​​