Green innovations for sustainable development
Under this title, a seminar was held at the State Patent and Technical Library of the Kyrgyz Republic, organized by the State Service for Intellectual Property and Innovations under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzpatent) and the ED “BIOM”.
Among the other participants were the Ministry of Economy of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Ministry of Energy and Industry of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic, the State Agency for Environmental Protection and Forestry, representatives of industrial enterprises, universities, non-governmental organizations, as well as scientists and inventors of the country. The National Sustainable Development Strategy includes the implementation of 78 major investment projects. Their total cost amounts to $7.4 billion. At the same time, the real financing capabilities of the republic are estimated at 53 percent. To find the missing $3.5 billion, it is necessary to attract investors to the country. However, according to the director of the recently created Investment Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Economy Almaz Sazbakov, investment inflows to Kyrgyzstan have decreased by 30 percent. According to him, the decline is due to the fact that investors, at best, take a wait-and-see approach, and at worst, are afraid to invest money due to the upcoming entry of the republic into the Customs Union, as well as due to the energy deficit. “We need to diversify the domestic economy, the growth rates of which leave much to be desired. This is impossible without an influx of investments, which, in turn, brings not only technologies but also the experience of investors,” says Sazbakov, “The agency was created to support, attract, and accompany investors in collaboration with government agencies and the business community.” According to Almaz Sazbakov, the agency receives 3-4 investors each week, 60% of whom are Chinese and 30% are Russians. “Today, our investment database contains 80 projects, but 60% of them are raw!” he says. However, according to the Ministry of Economy, the annual funding required amounts to 16-18 million soms. And perhaps, instead of once again creating yet another costly structure designed to attract investments, it would be better to support domestic innovations and their developers? After all, developed countries have long understood that the competition for investment is primarily a struggle for ideas. In small Kyrgyzstan, as it turned out, there are quite a few of them. The director of the joint Kyrgyz-Russian LLC “Electroporcelain” Vladimir Shipilov invested $5 million in the Kyrgyz Republic. Today, his enterprise produces energy-saving porcelain heaters that save precious kilowatts two or even three times more compared to other heating devices. For comparison, Shipilov provided an example. Over the past academic year, heating schools incurred the following costs: at school No. 16, where an electric boiler is installed – 763,342 soms; at school No. 23 with coal heating – 1,417,375 soms, at school No. 46 with gas heating – 1,858,330 soms, and at school No. 85 – where electric heating costs only 513,948 soms. This is a tremendous savings! Moreover, electroporcelain allows for “gaining” temperature in the school room within 1-1.5 hours before classes, which means there is still a reserve for saving scarce electricity. Such inventions seem to be very important under the conditions of limited electricity for social objects and the new tariff policy, however, the director is hurt by the state’s attitude towards its investors. “We are not allowed to sell heaters without a tender. Their cost is very high for us, as the material is very expensive. However, there is a 7-year warranty and electricity savings of up to 60%! So, the money for the purchase quickly “returns”! But in the first year, we incur losses. Then the buyer compares the characteristics and comes to us on their own,” says Shipilov. “If a private investor is found, then the know-how will be implemented in production, but from the State, I see no interest,” says Alaybek Obozov, a lecturer at KTU named after Razakov. An example is at the department of KTU, under Obozov’s guidance, a micro hydropower plant with two turbines rotating in opposite directions was developed, which increases energy efficiency. “There are no analogs of such micro hydropower plants in the world,” says Obozov, “This was recognized in Ufa at the SCO exhibition, where our project took first place among 60 presented projects. Additionally, our development made it into the top 10 best projects out of 100 selected for presentation at “Expo-2017”, which will be held in Astana. This result is solely due to the developers; we ourselves look for new projects and implement new ideas! The State, on the other hand, is on the sidelines!” Domestic inventor Vladimir Ryzhkov, thanks to the interest of a local investor, completed the modernization of the heating system of the capital’s health complex “Baitur”. He utilized combined heat stations of a new generation consisting of three modules: a thermal energy accumulator module, an autonomous thermal station module made from steam boilers and steam pipelines, and a solar system module. “Before modernization, an average of 1 MW/hour of electrical energy was spent to meet the needs of the complex for hot water supply and heating. After the installation of Transonic Turbine Mixers “TTS”, electricity consumption for heating water was reduced by 27% and amounted to around 730 kW/hour. After the installation of a solar system with an average thermal capacity of 200 kW/hour, electricity consumption by the health complex decreased by another 200 kW/hour, totaling 530 kW/hour. As a result, the approximate annual savings from implementing these two technologies amounted to 5,752,800 soms/year,” explains Ryzhkov. Unfortunately, no one else in the country installs such a combined station, despite the obvious economic benefits. Yet, such stations could be used in high-rise construction. The technological level of such facilities could transform the industries and housing services from loss-making to profitable. Meanwhile, Ryzhkov’s technologies are successfully implemented in neighboring Kazakhstan. On our part, there is much talk about the need to implement highly economical energy-saving technologies, but in reality, we live, as they say, in the old way. For example, currently, the energy-saving promotion in educational institutions is mostly handled only by coordinators of the international Norwegian project “Energy Efficiency for a Stable Future.” “It was found that the air-thermal regime in school rooms does not meet the parameters of a healthy school environment. It is unlikely to expect quality education under such learning conditions,” says coordinator Mikhail Yakovlev, “We replaced all old windows with new energy-efficient ones with energy-saving glass in 7 classrooms of 3 pilot schools; installed energy-efficient ceiling lights and board lights according to lighting calculations and standards of artificial lighting, as well as meters and presence sensors. It resulted in the provision of a minimum regulatory level of illumination – 300 and 500 lux. The market of energy-efficient lights was also researched, and technical solutions for normative lighting were prepared. However, with the current school funding, implementing even these low-cost technical solutions seems impossible, despite high praise for this work from local government representatives and deputies. Currently, all our innovative implementations have either a pilot or single nature. As the deputy minister of energy and industry, Batyr Bayetov stated, this can be explained by a lack of interest from government agencies, inaction on this issue from local government bodies, and the absence of investors, primarily local. According to him, this “triangle” is the practical foundation for the development of innovative activities in Kyrgyzstan. As a result, according to the Global Innovation Index, in 2014 Kyrgyzstan ranked 112th out of 143 countries (and in 2012 it was in 109th place). The deputy chairwoman of Kyrgyzpatent, Zina Isabaeva, explains this fact as a result of the absence of a unified vision for innovative activities, incentives, and preferences for enterprises implementing innovations, as well as the lack of a government financing mechanism. “A unified, coordinated vision for the development of the country’s innovative activities for the future has not been outlined by the relevant ministries, departments, and organizations. There are no preferences, tax incentives for companies engaged in innovative activities. Issues related to the commercialization of developments from universities and research institutes, including those created with state funds, are not regulated,” says Zina Isabaeva, “Moreover, there is no single legal act for the Kyrgyz Republic regulating the creation and support of technoparks, business incubators, and other objects of innovative infrastructure.” “Innovation is the product of the development of science in the country,” says employee of the Institute of Automation and Informatics of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic Umetaly Shukurkov, “But science is energy-consuming, and currently the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic is funded only for scientists’ salaries. One can certainly reduce the 25 institutions of the National Academy to 7, but this is unlikely to change anything against the backdrop of low scientific efficiency and its detachment from industry, the weak level of training of engineering and technical personnel and other specialists in the field of innovation development, as well as the absence of an adequate system of institutional support and development of innovative activities in the country.” “The application of innovative technologies today is a global trend,” says the chairman of ED “BIOM” Vladimir Korotenko, “This equation runs as a common thread in the National Sustainable Development Strategy of the Kyrgyz Republic. The lives of people in the region and the preservation of biodiversity depend on the implementation of new technologies. Proof: no work is being done in the Kyrgyz Republic to replace harmful asbestos-cement with safe construction materials, no work is being done on pesticide disposal and tailings decontamination technologies, there are no modern technologies for drinking water purification, and new technologies for water softening are not implemented.” At “Communalenergo,” for example, up to 120 tons of technical salt are purchased annually for water softening. But subsequently, this salt with water goes into the ground and leads to land “salinization.” As the lecturer at BFEA Meirim Abykeeva said, the time has come to implement those innovations that “will save us.” However, given the significant dependence on the import of foreign innovations in the form of equipment and technologies, they are not accepted by the domestic economy. It is also noted that the innovative development of regions in the country is very weak: according to the National Statistics Committee, 70% of innovative activities are concentrated in the city of Bishkek and the Chui region. The most active innovative activity is noted in enterprises engaged in food production, including beverages, tobacco, and other non-metallic mineral products. As we can see, while the State is obsessed with attracting foreign investments, domestic investors are already successfully implementing innovations by Kyrgyz inventors. Perhaps it is time for the State to consider that “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”
