What is EnergyCamp?

EnergyCamp is an informal open-air energy forum powered by renewable energy sources and drive of its participants. One of the EnergyCamp highlights is a field demonstration of renewable energy technologies. It literally is a ‘field’ event as EnergyCamp is held in plein air on a real field.
It means that participants can actually see how everything works and, for instance, charge their laptops or cell phones from solar panels or have a warm shower outdoors using a solar collector. We do this because, when in the field, people are not interested in theoretical potential but want hands-on experiences to check whether this or that technology is functional and efficient.
This year we (meaning the Greencubator team, our friends/partners, co-organizers) are going to demonstrate the following technologies:
  • solar batteries
  • wind generation (if we are lucky :)
  • water-pumping windmills
  • solar collectors
  • LED lighting
  • accumulators
  • shower cabins plugged to solar collectors
  • other renewable energy technologies. We welcome new partners willing to demonstrate their technologies
EnergyCamp participants are camping in tents on the site. Those who can may come from nearby towns and villages – this is an open-air event.

Who comes for the EnergyCamp?

  • Media interested in renewable energy and willing to know how it works
  • Businesses working in renewable energy and eager to demonstrate their technologies and services
  • Public servants understanding the importance of renewable energy and energy efficiency (last year the EnergyCamp near Kyiv was attended by the Deputy Minister of Housing and Public Utilities)
  • Bloggers writing about energy and environment
  • Community representatives looking for ways to optimize energy consumption within their communities
  • Investors putting money into energy production
  • Inventors changing our ideas of energy through their innovative approaches

Thus, it creates a high-quality mix of experts with deep understanding of renewable energy and those willing to learn more about it.

For instance, after talking to businesses and public servants, journalists get to understand that renewable energy is not just about solar batteries or windmills and goes far beyond this.

On the other hand, businesses can show the equipment they sell and demonstrate their approaches and achievements. Meanwhile, government officials get a chance for informal interaction with businesses and media, which helps them better understand each other.

What is on the EnergyCamp schedule?

Presentations

A big part of the EnergyCamp program is given to presentations by the participants working in the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. This includes representatives of companies working in renewable energy, city mayors, community leaders, heads of NGOs, investment agencies and other institutions.

Subjects of the talks are selected by the Greencubator team, who also help the most interesting participants to prepare their presentations. Presentations have a discussion part as usually speakers have 18 minutes for the speech and 12 minutes for Q&A session.

Subjects addressed by each EnergyCamp vary depending on energy needs of a particular area where it is held. At the next EnergyCamp we plan to cover the following topics:

  • Е3 (energy, economy, environment – how they are linked)
  • New renewable energy technologies
  • Good old (yet often underused) technologies (for instance, wood-fueled trucks)
  • Social technologies or how to build communities that would use new energy sources?
  • Renewable energy for different areas within Ukraine – what should it be?
  • Using locally available energy resources (biomass, sun, wind) to help improve local economy (including economically depressed areas)
  • Business models and social cooperation to develop renewable energy
  • Green tariff and government regulatory policies in Ukraine and worldwide. Ways to optimize the regulatory policies
  • We will be glad if you suggest more:)

Demonstrations of films and videos about renewable energy

It has become a tradition that in the evening of the first day after presentations and discussions the most active EnergyCamp participants gather to watch films and videos about energy, renewable energy sources and environment. We have noticed that usually such group viewings fuel debates just as passionate as during the presentations given by the participants.

Fun

Being an informal event EnergyCamp offers participants an opportunity not only to work intellectually but also to enjoy nature and have some fun. For instance, they could listen to the song “Rock’n'Roll dlya cherepakh” (Rock’n'Roll for Turtles) performed by the Ot Vinta band at EnergyCamp Kyiv in 2009, hike to Ak-Kaya (White Rock) mountain at EnergyCamp Crimea (May 2009) or ride the Carpathian Tram at the Dolyna event (June 2009).

Local energy efficiency projects

The Greencubator team spent a lot of time thinking about how we can provide additional support to communities and areas where we hold our EnergyCamps. Finally, we have decided that the best way to help them would be to launch energy efficiency projects on their territory. Therefore, we give half of the participation fee (100 UAH) to support local energy efficiency projects.

This model has proved to be quite successful. We accumulated 4,600 UAH at EnergyCamp Crimea and will grant this sum to one of local energy efficiency projects. In order to fund these projects we are planning a contest for local communities and initiative groups. The contest will be announced in the News section of our web-site.

We continued this practice at the Dolyna event and plan to proceed with it at other EnergyCamps. It is an excellent opportunity both for us and for project participants to join our efforts and support an initiative of a particular community that decided to become energy efficient.

When and where will the EnergyCamp take place?

In 2010 Greencubator is to hold five EnergyCamps in different regions throughout Ukraine. EnergyCamp 2010 locations and dates are shown on the map below. Clicking on EnergyCamp locations you will see dates and links to registration forms.
[gmap]
So far in 2010 we have held:
  • EnergyCamp Crimea, 29-30 May 2010
  • EnergyCamp Dolyna, 19-20 June 2010
  • EnergyCamp Severynivka, 24-25 July 2010
  • EnergyCamp-Kyiv, 28-29 August 2010
  • EnergyCamp-Odesa, 9-10 October 2010
We plan no more EnergyCamps this year.

Materials from previous EnergyCamps

EnergyCamp Kyiv photos: (29-30 August 2009)

EnergyCamp Crimea photos (29-30 May 2010)

EnergyCamp Crimea video (29-30 May 2010)

EnergyCamp Dolyna (“Life after Oil”) photos (19-20 June 2010)

EnergyCamp Severynivka (“Energy Eficient VIllage, healthy communities”) photos (24-25 July 2010)

EnergyCamp-Kyiv – “New energy of business, business in new energetics” (28-29 August 2010)

EnergyCamp-Odesa – “Energy of cities” (9-10 October 2010)

From its very beginning the EnergyCamp has been a community event. It would have been impossible without our friends. Actually, organizing the event together is part of the EnergyCamp idea. We are very glad that each time new companies, organizations and projects respond to our appeals and get involved in holding EnergyCamp events. We call them project friends. Here are their logos:

Greencubator organizes EnergyCamps and “Energy Efficient Universities” conferences with support of USAID, UNITER , PACT.