Success Stories

The development of small windmills can make an important contribution to the resolution of a very important problem – the stable provision of renewable and environmentally clean sources of energy. This has facilitated
the active development of wind energy around the world. During the Soviet period the Yuzhnoye Design Office developed military space rocket systems for mainly military usage. The collapse of the Soviet Union led to the loss of state-funded research projects. As a result, a group of enthusiasts headed by Dr. Nickolay Ushkin prepared a project to create a wind powered desalination unit for individual usage. This project, numbered 704, received STCU financing in 1999. The main goal of the project was to use wind power for the desalinisation
of highly mineralised water (including sea water) in coastal areas. The realisation of the project in 2001 allowed for the creation of a test unit based on new scientific and technological findings on wind turbines and desalination systems unique to Ukraine. Three Ukrainian patents were obtained for these findings and the results of this work were presented at scientific and technological conferences on wind power. Both foreign and
domestic circles have shown an active interest in these units. The rich experience and knowledge of specialists from the Yuzhnoye Design Office were utilised in the creation of the units. Working on the project allowed the project team to gain valuable knowledge in cooperating with the STCU, experience in establishing contacts with foreign specialists, and to broaden their knowledge of leading wind energy solutions. The work experience gained from the project facilitated the preparation of a second project on creating a combined wind-powered water-raising complex based on a new wind turbine (Ukraine) and an original rotor-type pump (Georgia). This project was also prepared by a group of specialists headed by Dr. Nickolay Ushkin, along with specialists from the Sukhumi Physical and Technical Institute in Georgia. This project, numbered Gr-54j, was supported by the STCU and adopted for financing in 2002.
This international Ukrainian-Georgian scientific project is supported with the scientific and technological help of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the US Ministry of Energy and ProCon GmbH of Germany. In order to discuss the results of this project, scientific working visits have been planned to both Germany and the USA.