A solar power plant has been launched at the E.O. Paton Educational and Research Institute of Materials Science and Welding. The Institute of IMZ is the second university unit after the Scientific and Technical Library to be equipped with such an alternative source of electricity. The opening ceremony took place on February 6, and was attended not only by the institute's employees, but also by the rector of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Anatolii Melnychenko and his deputies.
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The purpose of the station construction is to ensure the uninterrupted operation of the devices of the Center for Collective Use of Scientific Equipment (CCSEE) “Materials Science of Refractory Compounds and Composites”, which unites educational and scientific laboratories operating at the Institute of IMZ (building #9).
Ihor Volodymyrskyi, Director of the Institute, told how the idea to provide the Institute's CCSEE with an alternative source of electricity was born and how it was implemented: “In the summer of 2024, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine announced a competition for funding to provide centers for the collective use of scientific equipment with uninterruptible power supplies. Therefore, the joint team of the CCCC and the Eugene Oskarovych Paton Educational and Research Institute of Materials Science and Welding prepared such an application and received funding. In October 2024, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine signed an agreement worth UAH 1.4 million and a contract for the modernization of the technical base for scientific and scientific and technical activities by the center for the collective use of scientific equipment. In January 2025, the work under this contract was completed and 43 solar panels with a capacity of 580 W each were installed on the roof of building 9.”
The station's control center houses two inverters with a capacity of 20 kW each and battery equipment with an energy capacity of 43 kWh. In addition, their operation is controlled through a special mobile application that allows real-time monitoring of the power consumption of devices connected to the grid and supplied with electricity.
The solar power plant supplies electricity to four laboratories of the CCSEE. This is an educational and scientific laboratory for 3D computer modeling and 3D analysis. It is also a sample preparation laboratory, which contains modern technological equipment for preparing samples for further analytical methods (cutting machine, sample pressing machine, and grinding and polishing machine). In addition, there is an electron and optical microscopy laboratory equipped with modern equipment for studying the structure and composition of materials of various classes. There is also a laboratory for X-ray structural analysis equipped with a modern Ultima-IV X-ray diffractometer from Rigaku (Japan), which allows to study the structure of materials of various classes and provides the ability to accurately determine the phase composition of materials, parameters of their crystal structure, internal stresses, texture, etc. So all this equipment is now provided with alternative and uninterrupted power supply, and in the event of a centralized power outage, it will be able to operate using solar energy. This station, of course, will also allow us to illuminate the laboratory premises and use their computer equipment.
It should be added that the Center for the Collective Use of Scientific Equipment is an extremely important unit for the activities of the Institute of IMZ and the entire university. According to Ihor Volodymyrskyi, in 2024 alone, the CSCE performed research on about four hundred applications, each of which included 3-4 samples. The main customer for its services is, of course, the Institute of IMZ and other faculties and institutes of the university. However, there are no fewer external customers, such as research institutes of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, higher education institutions, companies of various forms of ownership, etc.
“The launch of the solar panel station, which allows to ensure the smooth functioning of the Center for the collective use of scientific equipment of the Eugene Paton Institute of IMZ, is a significant event. After all, the activities of this Center are not only of a purely university scale. This is a national level center. It provides educational and research opportunities for both our scientists and a huge number of educational institutions, enterprises and organizations. In addition, it is an element of our energy efficiency and energy saving strategy,” Anatolii Melnychenko said in a conversation with university media representatives. ”This year we plan to install stations in a number of buildings, in particular, in the buildings of the Faculty of Informatics and Computer Science and other departments. That is, we are moving towards making our university energy independent.”
So the work to provide the university with alternative energy sources will continue. And so, it will continue.