Go to green: the eco-festival “Green day” at the Polytech

In this weekend Peter the Great Saint Petersburg Polytechnic University hosted a large-scale international environmental festival "Greenday". The event included the opening of the third electric filling station in Saint Petersburg significant event for owners of electric cars. By the way, participants of the festival could visit the exhibition of electric vehicles and see how the car is charged with electricity instead of the usual fuel. In addition, the Polytechnic campus presented advanced technologies and latest developments in the field of alternative energy, eco-workshops, thematic films, art installations, lectures and seminars on environmental issues, music and sports events, and much more.

The Polytechnic University has gathered many guests on its territory: not only residents of the city, but also representatives of other countries, especially from the countries of Northern Europe. Key partners of the event were the Council of Ministers of the Nordic countries, "Leontief center"and the Danish Institute of culture in St. Petersburg, which held a city bike ride "CO2 Green Drive" before the Grand opening of the festival. Bicycle enthusiasts of Saint Petersburg and guests of the city drove in an organized column from the Palace square through the historical center to the campus of the Polytechnic University, where they had the opportunity to Park their bicycles in a secured bike Park and take part in the festival program.

Among the bike enthusiasts were representatives of the city administration, employees and students of the Polytechnic University, diplomats and employees of the consulates General of Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, as well as the Institute of Finland and the Danish Institute of culture in St. Petersburg. The guests of honor greeted the festival participants from the main stage.

Director of the Danish Institute of culture in Saint Petersburg Finn Andersen thanked the city administration and the Polytechnic University for the opportunity to host such an event, noting that it is a great honor for him.

Guests of the festival on behalf of the city Governor Georgy Poltavchenko were welcomed by the Chairman Of the Committee on science and higher education Andrey Maksimov. "We have a very professional University system in St. Petersburg. I think that the field of ecology is actively developing in every University, and special attention is paid to it in the Polytech," - said A.Maximov. He also noted that the next year in the Russian Federation will be held under the sign of ecology.

Get energized

The central event of the “Greenday" festival was the opening of the third electric filling station in Saint Petersburg. The gas station uses solar panels, which allows it to run on renewable energy.

The team of the Polytechnic University and partners quickly developed an architectural sketch of the gas station, calculated its rigidity, made a project and implemented it.

As explained by the organizers, the opening of the gas station would not have taken place without the support of the General sponsor of the project – the company “MicroArt”. Deputy General Director of the company V. V. Kotsuba congratulated all present on the opening of the first solar power plant in Russia, which allows charging electric vehicles. "Renewable energy is the future. I think this pilot project will give an impetus to the development of this segment in our country, and it has great prospects, " V. Kotsuba added. – The peculiarity of the project is that all the electrical equipment that is located in the gas station is developed and produced in our country."

The organizers also took care to demonstrate the operation of the station: a Nissan Leaf electric car drove up to the gas station noiselessly, connected to the station, and a flashing display in the car showed the incoming energy. The car will take approximately six hours to fully charge.

Green University

In the modern world, issues of environmental protection are particularly acute, and it is young people: schoolchildren, students, young scientists and specialists, who must become the force that will meet the challenges of the time. At the Polytechnic University, there are a number of platforms for defining priorities, conglomerating common efforts and solving fundamentally new problems.

During the festival Polytechnic University, the University of Montenegro and Riga technical University organized the International scientific-practical conference "Green building in 2016".

On the day of the festival also held a competition of projects "Eco-campus by creating the concept of the future". The project competition was held in three categories - "Energy", "Construction and reconstruction of buildings", "Transport "in order to select projects for the creation of an eco-campus concept, the development of green energy on the site of an educational organization and the promotion of eco-friendly technologies for universal use.

From an electric car to a lightsaber

The extensive festival area of the event forced participants to think carefully about their route and the sequence of visits to various activities. Especially popular was the exhibition of electric cars, which had a dozen cars from different manufacturers. It is worth noting that before forming a line on the Polytech campus, a column of electric cars passed from the Lesnaya metro station to the Akademicheskaya metro station, thus forming the "CO2" inscription on the city map.

And the team of Polytech Solar has just started creating a solar-powered car. The guys promise that the body of the car will be ready by December of this year, and a full-fledged prototype will appear in may 2017. The team strives to implement its project as soon as possible in order to make the St. Petersburg-Sochi motor race on the sunmobile in June.

A separate tent, created with the participation of the Student Council of St. Petersburg, was dedicated to the development of students in our city. Among them was presented a solar-powered trimaran, which was created by students of the Polytechnic University in the technical yachting Club at the center for scientific and technical creativity of youth.

On the day of the festival, in addition to the exhibition of projects, the Fablab also gave lectures on the topics of sustainable development of St. Petersburg and the world of the future. And everyone could take part in open master classes on creating designer paper and paints from natural materials, 3D-holograms and lightsabers, and getting electricity from vegetables.

The festival program was so extensive-lectures, master classes, film screenings, music and sports events-that it was sometimes difficult to find where an event was held. In order to prevent people from getting lost in the vast territory of the Polytechnic, 150 volunteers – University students-worked at the festival.