Green Economy English version

1

European Networks of Technology Transfer

Carsharing of electric cars and electric municipal public transport

as a new face of transport

Poland as a worth-investing and prospective region

Emirates & Europe Business Development Cluster

a unique cooperation scheme

GreenEconomy

www.ge.egta.eu

2

EGTA is an international platform for cooperation among European clusters in order to set up the tech-nology transfer between entities, oriented to the needs of a modern, sustainable and intelligent econo-my.

The members of European Green Technology Alliance are European technology clusters, whose aim is to support further development of technological solutions and their global commercialisation. We kindly welcome to cooperate with us.

: : : :18 21 325 58

www.egta.euo�[email protected]+48 22 424 95 83/84

skype ID: egta.euwhatsApp: egta.eufacebook: egta.eu

European Green Technology Alliancewww.egta.eu

UNITED ARABEMIRATES

QATAR

Green Economy 2016 3

PartnersSmart IT ClusterGreen Cars ClusterGreen Energy ClusterGreenPL.eu Invest GroupEmirates & Europe Business Development

PublisherEuropean Green Technology AllianceAl. Niepodległości 1802-653 [email protected]

Editorial officeGreen EconomyAl. Niepodległości 1802-653 WarsawPhone: +48 22 424 95 82www.ge.egta.eu

Scientific Advisory BoardProf. zw. dr hab. Krzysztof OpolskiDr Miron Maicki

Editorial teamKrzysztof KuberskiKrzysztof PanekKatarzyna Anita PiotrowskaAlina ArchipczukMałgorzata Szewczyk

PhotosKrzysztof Panek

TranslationEdyta KoprowskaAlina ArkhypchukAgata ZdanowiczMateusz Kośnik

Graphic designKinga JuchimiukMarta DzikowskaKamil Nować

CoverBotond Horvath/Shutterstock.com

PrintOmegapress

Terms of Publication:

Publication of the presentation, notes, opi-nions and descriptions, technical and com-mercial materials presenting products and services of the company is done for fee. The editorial board is not responsible for the content of advertisements and promo-tional materials.

The editorial board reserves the right to make editorial changes in materials sent for publication. The reprint or any other use of the publication, in whole or partially is permitted only with written consent of the publisher.

Dear Readers,

we have entered an era in which one of the most important issues is the processing of data and obtaining ecological energy. The world is facing two problems, which are depleting fossil fuels and increasing environmental pollution. Diversification of energy sources and abandonment of the old conventional ways of obtaining it - is the key to a new level of economic development in the field of energy potentials. Therefore, in this edition of Green Economy magazine we will discuss the unconventional solutions for energy self-sufficiency in Poland, and also raise the issue of Polish trans-port system. For many years, there has been debate about green cars and their impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, that is why we analyze carsharing of electric cars, and assess what chances this solution has in Poland.

Revolutionary economy depends largely on the support for the technolo-gical transfer initiative received in a given area of the country. Exploiting the potential of science centers and implementation of the latest tech-nological solutions creates an opportunity for the rapid development of innovative companies and institutions, and also significantly contributes to equal opportunities of economic development between countries. On the following pages, you will find a description of factors that have a significant impact on the economic development of Europe and guidelines for how and where to invest in Poland. We analyze also the importance of coope-ration between Poland and the UAE, recent achievements of partnership and upcoming prospects for its development.

In this edition of Green Economy Magazine, we present also a study abo-ut modern technology of cloud computing and intelligent sensors, which change the face of security of logistics, transportation, and most impor-tantly, people. You could say that the every next page of Green Economy Magazine is proof that in both the technological and entrepreneurial world innovation is the most important . It is what invariably leads to growth, and that is why it not only provides a new solution to old problems, but often can completely change our lives.

Enjoy your reading!

phot. Shutterstock

4

skype ID: investpl.euwhatsApp: investpl.eufacebook: investpl.eu

[email protected]+48 22 424 95 80 / 82

CONTACT DETAILS:

Investment Service Centercomplex project support

www.investpl.eu

Investment Service Center is a group of high level experts whose task is to define the needs of each Investor in the best possible way and then select suitable tools for their fulfillment.

Stages of Investment Service Center services

www.investpl.eu

Contact with an investor and defining their needs

Preparing a conception anda business model

Implementing and supervising the investment


01

02

03

04

28

Innovative Measurement Systemstechnologies for monitoring of load transport conditions

75

42

72

96

86

101

106

114

Smart Masovia new challenges for the self-government of Mazovian Voivodeship

Infrastructure shapes mobility which means what the alternative fuels for infrastructure development is all about

Green mobility which means it is time for emission-free mobility

32

36

89

80

6 56

59

64

92

10

50

18

22

To see everything in detail

Green Cloud one step ahead to the future of innovation

Energy self-sufficiency of Poland the way of development

ELV prototype of Green Cars Clustera breakthrough in electric automotive

Pneumatic transportthe mean for next revolution?

Polish shipbuilding industryreview of the sector

Investment Service Center

Multicardinnovative technologies

European Networks of Technology Transfer

Carsharing of electric carsand electric municipal public transport as a new face of transport.

From idea to innovationhow to be an effective innovator?

Ultramodern vertical wind turbinesfuture of industrial power enginieering

PowEr ENgiNEEriNg

TraNsPorT

EuroPE aND ThE worlD

TEChNology TraNsfEr

Innovative rolling stock

EU investments in Poland a positive development momentum

Emirates & Europe Business Development Cluster a unique cooperation scheme

Poland as a worth-investing and prospective region

Smart IT Cluster intelligent solutions for mobility and energy

With photovoltaic cells to the sun

6

An annual output of electricity may, at that time, reach over 6,600 TWh. At the same time, the share of wind energy in the total amount of produced electricity is expected to incre-ase. The most optimistic scenario foresees that until 2030 the wind turbines can generate almost 25% of the electricity produced worldwide.

The Polish market of wind farms, when compared to the Eu-ropean or global market is characterised by a stable dynamic growth. In 2011 – 2013 the share of installed wind energy in the total power of the National Power Grid, was increasing by almost 2.5% annually, and in 2013 it reached almost 9%. At the same time, in accordance with Directive 2009/28/EC of 23.04.2009 and the new climate and energy package, Po-land as an EU member state, is obliged to increase the share of renewable energy in the total country’s energy balance from 7.2% in 2005 to 15% in 2020 and 20% until 2030. The abovementioned factors made Poland being classified as the one of 12 main wind turbine markets globally (among the countries installing wind turbines from 0.5 to 2.5 GW).

At the same time, thanks to vast range of wind-forced am-plitudes both in Poland and Europe as well as all over the world, there is a certain need to develop technologies, which would allow the wind power station to work (to generate electricity) at wind speed under 2 m/s and to maintain its functionality even with wind speeds of 50 m/s.

Currently, there are two types of wind turbine technolo-gies on the market: horizontal and vertical turbines. Polish landscape is usually graced with horizontal turbines, com-monly known as “windmills”, thanks to their price, that can

According to the forecasts of the Global Wind Energy Council, the role of wind energy around the world will steadily increase in incoming years. All analyzed possi-ble scenarios for growth of this market anticipate constant growth of the total wind capacity and will reach over 2,500,000 MW by 2030.

be observed in the whole Pomeranian region. Nonetheless, the noise and harmful for people infrasound emitted during the operation of wind turbines which requires fiing the in-stallations far from inhabited areas is a limitation of tradi-tional, horizontal wind turbines. According to the estimation of experts, horizontal turbines constitute a potential risk to birds, thus, into some extent a threat to the entire ecosys-tem. Noiseless work and lack of infrasound or threat to birds are the characteristics of vertical GVT wind turbines offered by Green Vertical Turbine LLC (www.windpl.eu).

When analysing the market of vertical wind turbines in Po-land, what draws one’s attention is the fact that until re-cently, vertical wind turbines offered capacities only in the range between 10W and 20kW for individual recipients (households, small farms) as well as narrow segment of insti-tutional use (providing power to street lights, buildings, me-asurement devices, etc.). This leaves an untapped segment of SME market from the industrial sector with the demand for turbines with capacities ranging from 20 kW to 500 kW, which are suitable for supplying small and medium-sized in-dustrial plants or large farms. The manufacturers of vertical wind turbines did not offer the customers from the maritime sector (off-shore and marine power plants), and also for in-dustrial power engineering for which vertical wind turbines can be a very attractive alternative – cost-effective and safe for people and natural environment.

In 2015 Polish market welcomed ultramodern and unique, on the global scale, technology, called Green Vertical Tur-bine. A modular power station with horizontal axis, consi-sts of a joined together 3-metre segments, endowed with

The future of industrial and prosumer power engineeringKrzysztof Kuberski

ultramodern vertical wind turbines


phot. www.windpl.eu

8

power, ranging from 20 to 500kW. Green Vertical Turbine technology produced by a eponymous company – Green Vertical Turbine LLC – has numerous functions, which di-stinguish it from other solutions, available on the market. What is the most important, GTV power stations are cha-racterised by high wind energy efficiency, what provides advantageous correlation of price and effects of the power plant performance and accordingly, significantly decreases costs of electricity. At the same time, thanks to modulari-ty of the construction, GVT power plants enable flexible adaptation of power to customer needs. GVT segments can be modified into one or multi-segment columns and three-column towers, that makes power plants suitable for both prosumer application and the industry. Moreover, for the reason of a unique construction, wind turbines may be localized close to each other without any risk that turbines will deprive themselves from energy. This is particularly im-portant when it comes to wind farms, because it allows to increase density of turbines disposal, as well as decrease total cost for land, required for construction and essential infrastructure.

Green Vertical Turbine LLC manufacturer, in his designing works, strongly focused on addressing the problem of big wind amplitudes, which is characteristically for the coun-tries with geographical location similar to Poland. The un-doubted advantage of GVT power plant is its resistance to unfavourable wind conditions. Wide range of wind speed that the turbine can work at (from 1.5 to 55m/s) and more importantly, independence of the wind directions as well as resistance to wind flow interference enables to install GTV power plants in areas where use of traditional wind turbi-nes is not possible or impeded by too weak or too strong gusts of wind. Furthermore, use of intelligent system inte-grated with energy storage allows to gather overcapacity of energy and automatically use it to sustain and stabilize turbine works when wind conditions are unfavourable.

Vertical GVT power plants thanks to their construction fa-cilities, namely modularity and blades placed inside of the construction, are completely neutral to the natural envi-ronment. Firstly, they are emission-free and do not genera-te vibration or noise. Secondly, they are safe for birds and bats which can sometimes sit on the working turbine. As an effect, earlier mentioned wind turbines may be deployed everywhere, where the use of typical vertical and horizon-tal turbines considered impossible, in other words, at built--up areas, settlements, industrial and environment fragile places. At the same time, thanks to mentioned advantages, installation of wind turbine is conducted with the accor-dance to simplified procedure of acquiring environmental

permits, which considerably shortens implementation of investment projects and lowers expenditures, related to it.

It is also significant to notice that apart from electricity production, vertical GVT wind turbines, manufactured by Green Vertical Turbine LLC may be applied in various areas, such as:

� Storing the energy: storing the energy in a form of com-pressed air and potential of transporting the water, sto-ring the energy in a form of hydrogen with its use to combustion in fluidise bed boiler or in form of fuel cells, air compression.

� Wind energy transformation into mechanical energy (work performance): aerating mineshafts, sewage tre-atment by aerification, sucking out the air from halls, warehouses, silos, drying plants, change of air in halls.

� Heat energy production: heating houses, greenhouses, heating other mediums, e.g. paraffin wax with the use of heat from phase transformation of the working me-diums, heating the water, distributing air to the residen-tial settlements.

However, the significant advantage of GVT power plant installation lies in the easiness of its transportation. Name-ly, the modularity of the construction makes the transport and construction quick, simple and economically effective even with construction of large power plants for industrial purpose. Thanks to 3-metre height and the diameter of a single turbine element, the transport does not require pilo-ting. Unlike competitive wind power plants, GVT turbines do not have large construction elements, such as masts and blades/rotor blades.

Green Vertical Turbine LLC manufacturer offers Vertical wind turbines made of steel and aluminium, which allows to deploy turbine close to buildings (at roofs, posts, exi-sting mass constructions) and also offshore including ships, which is limited when it comes to traditional wind turbines or virtually impossible.

The quality of the offered product based on innovative technology supporting the fact that Green Vertical Turbi-ne LLC company is carrying out continuous research and development works on GVT turbines. Moreover, it does not focuses only on production and construction of wind turbines but also implements project of building diver-sified wind farms with use of new vertical wind turbine technology. In 2014, implementation project was conduc-ted. Currently, the company is carrying out next projects in Poland.


phot. www.windpl.eu

10

to the sun

Photovoltaic cells are used to produce free energy not only in building construction, but also as a support for energy supply of service facilities, road signs or electric vehicles. All over the world the scientists and designers are looking for solutions to the most efficient applications of photovoltaic cells. Many ideas have been already successfully implemented, but there are also extraordinary and costly ones that still have to wait to be brought to reality on a large scale.

RoAd SiGnS And STREETliGhTS

The active road signs are mainly installed in particularly dan-gerous places. They enable drivers to plan their manoeuvres earlier than in the case of usual, unlit signs, especially at night. The active road signs are visible from large distances and can warn about sharp bends or traffic islands and inform abo-ut pedestrian crossing etc. Implementation of energy saving LEDs allows to make use of solar energy in places where connection to standard power grid is not possible or is too expensive. In such cases, photovoltaic panels, wind turbines or their combinations, called hybrid systems, are used. Power supply parameters are set in such a way that the active road sign could work for 7-10 overcast days. The first solar powe-red active road sign in Poland was installed in 1999 by the pedestrian crossing at national road no. 2 in Halinow (about 10 km east of Warsaw). The project that has been conduc-ted by Warsaw University of Technology and financed by the General Directorate of National Roads and Motorways, has proved that using solar powered road signs is profitable, even in our unfavourable climate. Thanks to monitoring systems of meteorological conditions and correct functioning of the road sign, the results of simulations are comparable to the reality. It helps to improve the project and construct more photovoltaic systems, to be used all around the country. The photovoltaic cells are also used on retroreflective road studs and elements mounted on crash barriers.

Glow on ThE dARk RoAdS

A special powder that may glow up to 10 hours after dusk, working on the principle of solar lamps as well as a special

paint for painting pedestrian crossings, which contains cry-stals that store solar energy and illuminate the crossings at ni-ghts, were developed in Netherlands. Moreover, illuminated elements for so-called intelligent motorways, e.g. snowflakes warning about slippery road, are planned to be developed.

hyBRid lAmPS

Initially, solar powered lamps were being installed (so cal-led Solar Street Lighting System) as universal illumination of e.g. pedestrian crossings or sharp bends. Nowadays, as in the case of active road signs, the system is often suppor-ted with wind energy. The hybrid devices are equipped in modern VRLA batteries which enable continuous functioning for several days (8–14 hours per day), regardless of weather conditions. Usually, the basic elements of the hybrid system are a LED road lantern, a photovoltaic panel, a wind turbine, a VRLA battery, a controller with a dusk sensor and finally, a lighting mast and lighting column.

An autonomous Ledal lamp, developed and manufactured by Alumast, is one of the most interesting solutions of such type. It is distinguished by design of light fiing with LED type so-urce of light that is made of polymeric composites. Batteries, regulators as well as other system components can be pla-ced inside the lamp. It is properly ventilated and at the same time, protected against water geing inside. A rotary dome, on the top of which a photovoltaic cell and a wind turbine were mounted, was installed on a column (with one or two jibs for lamps) made from polyester-glass composites. It ena-bles choosing power supply sources and using them depen-ding on needs and climate conditions. The lamp may be also

Dorota Czernek

with photovoltaic cells


phot. Shutterstock

12

equipped in an emergency supply system from power grid or a power generator. A universal structure of the lamp and jibs allows installing even up to 4 random light fiings with dif-ferent angles of lighting and powered by renewable energy.

An original idea of a self-sufficient lamp that does not requ-ires external sources of electricity, belongs to Kaal Masten. Its construction has 18 m in height, consists of LED lamps and a column, covered with photovoltaic cells, which collect the energy necessary to supply it. It is equipped with a system that that automatically turns the light on and off.

SolAR moToRwAyS

Highway Solar Noise Wall in Netherlands or Solar Highway in Oregon are the examples in which the areas along the ro-ads could be used for mounting photovoltaic cells on noise barriers or on special structures. The collected solar energy is used to supply electric vehicle charging stations and traffic lights on the road or in its vicinity. In Oregon, small solar farms have been installed by the roads, researched and improved since several years. However, it is still a quite expensive so-lution and the main problem is that the cells may get dirty and that lorries passing by the cells cast shadows at them. The Dutch innovative, transparent noise barriers (with min. 450 m in length and 6 m in height) have photovoltaic panels installed on both sides (at 2 m above ground) facing north-so-uth. Covering the panels with self-cleaning glass, resistant to chemicals expected to become a solution to the problem of dirtiness. Completion of the prototype is scheduled for 2015, while the production is planned for the beggining of 2016.

RoAd SuRfACES on ThE Sun

Solar roadwaysOver the last few years, an innovative, almost bizarre Solar Roadway project has become more and more popular. Ac-cording to its creators – an American couple Scott and Ju-lia Brusaw from Idaho – the typical road surfaces would be replaced by photovoltaic cells. If they were implemented on majority of American roads, they would have produced three times more energy than is currently consumed in the United States. The basis of the invention are small (17 cm) hexagonal panels with special photovoltaic cells, covered with recycled toughened glass. The energy generated during the day wo-uld be stored and provided to local energy grids or used for inductive charging of electric vehicles, powering the lighting etc. All is to be connected to an intelligent system, aimed at automatic notification about damage of any panel or robbe-ry attempt. Many LEDs may be placed into the panels and connected to form smart managed systems enabling display of e.g. horizontal signs, writings/communicates on the road, and also changes of traffic organisation or active marking of parking slots. The solar panels are to be equipped in heating elements that will melt the snow. The underground corridors with cable installation would also have space for rainwater drainage and storage systems. In 2010 the inventors cre-ated the first panels without solar cells in order to check if electronics worked properly. One year later, a heating sys-tem, LED lights and solar cells were installed. The ideas of solar roadways were awarded in GE Ecomagination Challen-ge contest (promoting technologies and solutions that help creating intelligent, green and efficient energy networks), and also EE Time ACE Awards in “The most promising renewable energy” category. This concept caught interest of the Federal Highway Administration, General Electric, and even Google. In order to gather more funds outside government grants, the project owners started a campaign on Indiegogo portal and managed to collect USD 2.2 million. After polishing the project and initial manufacturing, the inventors want want to get to the 2nd phase of implementing the new technology, which is the covering of all American highways with the abo-ve-mentioned panels.

Following the advantages of the characterised installation, its construction cost is also characterised by a quite accaptable price. As estimated in Scott Brusaw, each mile would cost around USD 4 million and will be especially effective in co-untries having high amount of sunshine. Durability of such roads is still questionable, even though the inventors assure that a single panel can withstand the weight of over 100 ton-nes, which is more than the weight of the heaviest vehicles; however, it has not been completely proven yet. They also phot. Shutterstock


claim the tests conducted on wet glassy surface proved that a vehicle can get to a stop at about 129 km/h, while mainta-ining required distance. Also technological impediments may cause difficulties e.g. temperature fluctuations, precipitation, durability, wear and tear of panels’ surface at the point of contact with tyres, and also behaviour of such surface during a flood or an earthquake. The maintenance and repair costs are also significant, especially with difficult access to devices placed under the glass and in ducts. Despite the fact that the solar roadways have both supporters and opponents, the Brusaw couple are convinced in the relevance of their project and are confident in its prompt implementation.

Similar solution – pavement made of photovoltaic panels – was developed by George Washington University (GWU) scientists in cooperation with the Spanish company Onyx. The prototype of the pavement surface was implemented on premises of the GWU campus – buildings of Exploration and Innovation Centre were connected with the pavement. The generated energy supplies as many as 450 LED lamps inten-ded to illuminate the pavement.

The dutch are quickerThe Dutch company SolaRoad is an originator, creator and general contractor of a project, being carried out in Kromme-nie (25 km north from Amsterdam). This year, a test section of a cycle route made of photovoltaic cells was officially opened. Currently it is a 70 m long path and ultimately it is supposed to reach 100 m in 2016 which should allow supplying of at least 3 households with electricity. The cycle route is made of prefabricated elements with a surface of 2.5 x 3.5 m, where under a 1 cm thick glass layer, silicone photovoltaic cells were installed. Dust and dirt, unfavourable gradient and the glass layer decrease the energy gains by about 30% in comparison to photovoltaic systems of similar power installed on roofs. The creators expect that the investment should capitalise after about 20 years, and in the case of massive production – in less than 15 years. That would probably be the first road in the world which construction costs capitalised in such a short time period. Construction of such kinds of routes co-uld provide free electricity to power e.g. street lights, traffic lights, houses and even electric vehicles.

Solar paving blocksBrick Lighting is a paving block with solar powered LEDs, equipped with a 1500–3000 mAh lithium battery and a dusk sensor which turns it on at sunset. A waterproof casing can withhold weight of several tonnes and that is why the bricks can be used both on pedestrian crossings, garden paths, parks, as well as driveways and public roads. The elements are resistant to ageing and UV radiation, they are also availa-

ble in various sizes, shapes and colours (e.g. red, green, blue, yellow, white, pink and violet). The lighting can be controlled with a remote control with the functions such as 3 levels of colour brightness (brightening/dimming), increasing and de-creasing the motion of displayed colours and turning the light on/off.

ElECTRiCiTy fRom ThE Roof

Chargers of electric vehiclesElectric bikes and scooters charging stations constitute self--sufficient systems. It simply requires installing photovoltaic panels on their roofing. A station designed and produced by the Schrack Technik company may serve a good example of such technology. It has four panels that constitute the roof surface and protect against weather conditions. The station enables charging up to 6 vehicles at a time from power points placed on a column by each bicycle rack.

Many open car parks with roofing are built, having photovol-taic cells installed on them. Some of them have a function of turning the panel’s direction, depending on weather condi-tions. In the autumn of 2014 one of the largest investments of this type was completed in Poland. There are almost 40 carports on the main car park of the University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszow. Modern photovol-taic panels, having total surface area of about 840 m2 and generating about 170 kW of electricity, were installed on the carports. Each stand is equipped in Tesla and Melex power points that allow to charge 4 vehicles simultaneously.

phot. hans engbers/Shutterstock.com

14

Solar bridgesCovering about 3 km of roof over an Antwerp-Amsterdam high-speed rail tunnel is a very interesting solution. The mu-tual project of Infrabel (responsible for Belgian rail infrastruc-ture) and Efinity (manufacturer of photovoltaic cells) com-panies is aimed at increasing the share of renewable energy sources in powering the rail. The photovoltaic cells, with total surface area of 50 000 m2 and installed on a special structure, generate 3.3 MWh annually. Thanks to that installation, com-pleted in the middle of 2011, 4000 trains a year is powered by solar energy (normal and high-speed trains) which is a daily rail traffic as well as rail infrastructure and a train station in Antwerp. It is the role model idea if one take into account the length of all railway tracks that could be roofed with solar collectors.

A similar solution was implemented on a rebuilt London’s railways bridge over Thames. The Solarcentury company mounted 4400 photovoltaic panels on a structure shielding the bridge. The panels will produce half of electric energy needed to power Blackfriars train station. It took almost 5 years to install the cells. Completing the investment was a great challenge. Free movement of structural elements and ensuring safety of the works was restricted by location of the bridge and continuous functioning of the train station while the bridge was being rebuilt. Such type of installation was also completed in Brisbane on a bridge for pedestrians and cyclists, where 84 photovoltaic panels were installed, thus, ensuring that total energy demand of the bridge is satisfied – 100 kW per day. Nowadays, more and more projects of solar

powered bridges are created, e.g. in Seoul or Lisbon. Italian design engineers created a project of a functional bridge that at the same time serves as a wind farm and solar power plant. It would generate as much as 40 million kWh of electricity that could power over 15 000 houses.

Below, one can see the two other examples of innovative ideas for the use of roofing covered by photovoltaic cells that so far have not been implemented. One of the projects em-braces the idea of 18 m long and 40 m high solar arcs on motorways – designed by TysonSteeleSolar Arch. The energy generated by them would supply lighting and prevent road icing. The second one is the project of a Swedish architect Hans Tham that lies in covering the Santa Monica Freeway highway in Los Angeles with solar panels.

SolAR PowEREd vEhiClES

Buses The first solar powered bus Tindo was completed in 2007 in Adelaide in Australia. A Polish idea for using solar energy in transport resulted from cooperation of Lublin University of Technology and Municipal Transportation Office in Lublin during the conduction of the research project “Development of bus photovoltaic structures technology, limiting fuel con-sumption and emission of toxic components of exhaust fu-mes”. The outcomes of the cooperation may be seen in the form of the two 12-metre mercedes Conecto buses with mo-unted photovoltaic panels which entered the streets of Lublin in autumn 2013. At the beginning of the previous year, the

phot. Igor Karasi/Shutterstock.com


tests were conducted on another two 18-metre articulated buses. The installed panels are advanced, since thin-layer photovoltaic cells, which are shock resistant and made of materials that make them flexible, ensure high absorption of solar spectrum.

City buses are being equipped in the increasing numbers of systems and devices e.g. lighting, ticket punches, ticket ma-chines, bus stop displays, voice announcements and traffic management systems which significantly increase the de-mand for electric energy. According to professor Miroslaw Wendeker from the Department of Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics and Aviation Propulsion Systems in Lublin Uni-versity of Technology, who is the project originator, the cells may supply 15–25% of energy used by the vehicle which should reduce fuel consumption by 4.5–5%. For compari-son, identical panels were installed on the roof of 8-storey building of Lublin University of Technology. It was expec-ted that the panel mounted on the roof of the bus should collect 63% less energy than the one that is completely exposed. However, as it turned out, that the loss amounts just to 25%. Research and development of the innovative technology from Lublin continued until 2015.

RailOn the route of an inactive railway between Moerlenbach and Wald-Michelbach in Germany runs a solar powered electric rail. Thirty 8-person rail trolleys transport (at the speed of 30 km/h) , deliver tourists through railway bridges and two tunnels offering them amazing views. The passen-gers can also influence their physical condition by using pe-dals that work to additionally power the rail trolley. Other interesting projects of trains powered by solar energy are, for example, Hungarian touristic train called Vili Solar Train, Solar Bullet fast train in Arizona or single-track railway con-necting Bologna and the main airport in Italy that in some places runs at the height of even 25 m. It is equipped with solar panels at every station and along the railway track, transferring gathered energy directly to the train.

One of the many projects of the future is a track system of private transport, so-called JPods, capsules with own electric engines which draw energy from a special track by means of electric brushes similar to those which are used on the underground. The passengers call the capsule from a special station and after geing inside, they enter their destination by means of touch screens. Computer chooses an appropriate route and ensures that the two capsules do not crash with each other. A full-size capsule could run with a maximum speed of 48 km/h consuming approximately 150 Wh/km. Solar panels mounted on the tracks – with

proper length – would be enough to provide energy for the entire system.

CarsCars powered by solar energy are usually treated as an at-traction. Normally, they are designed for a single passen-ger and used for records beating. Creators of these bolides make their best to ensure that their model could travel the longest route on a single charge. World Solar Challenge can serve a good example. It is a race organised since 1987 in which vehicles powered by solar energy and recovered kinetic energy participate. Participants of the race, crossed the desert every day from 9 am to 5 pm covering the di-stance of 3000 km from Darwin to Adelaide. In 2013 the first in the world Stella family car, which was powered by solar energy, managed to successfully finish this race. It was created by students and doctoral students of Eindhoven University of Technology. It looks like a small, flat bus and it can accommodate 4 persons. On the car roof are located silicone solar collectors of high quality that cover half of the vehicle’s demand for energy. The car can cover 800 km using its battery only.

The next World Solar Challenge race will take place in October 2017. Members of the Motorisation Enthusiasts Students’ Association of Lodz University of Technology (in cooperation with The Young Microelectronic Engineers’ Club of this University) were the first crew from Central and Eastern Europe that managed to create a vehicle, powered by solar energy for the Australian race.

In 2015, the bolide took part in the race as a cruiser. It was designed for two passengers and complied with the parameters, required

in normal road traffic. It was not an easy project since in time of panels’ installation on the surface of the vehicle, the creators had to consider also the angle of light incidence (that is the latitude of the race route), driving direction (from north to south) as well as the season. Unfortunately, they did not manage

to finish the race. Electric town cars pre-sented by the Ford company during 2014

International CES are also interesting as they have photovoltaic panels on their roofs that allow easy charging without driver’s parti-cipation. Simply driving under a specially

developed lens that focuses rays of light is enough.

16

BoatsPhotovoltaic cells are also used to supply boats and yachts. In the last several years a few projects were created, e.g. Swiss Tûranor PlanetSolar – the world’s largest boat supplied only with solar power. A trimaran, launched a vessel in Germany in 2010, is 31 m long and it is covered with total photovolta-ic cells surface area of 500 m2. They generate approximately 93 kW for two electric engines and other on-board devices as well as for powerful lithium-ion batteries, thanks to which the boat can sail even for three stormy days without any problems. The structure of the trimaran ensures adequate stability, a shallow draught that saves energy used to power the unit, and a large deck area that can be covered with pho-tovoltaic cells. The boat can reach a speed of about 15 sea miles per hour. The first achievement of Tûranor was passing through the Atlantic Ocean within 26 days and 19 hours and in 2012 its crew sailed around the world within 584 days. Trimaran was adapted for cruise purposes for 12 passengers and a 4-person crew. In 2013 the previous record of passing through the Atlantic by this boat was beaten – it took only 22 days. Nowadays, it is used as a floating naval research laboratory by Geneva University.

Polish design engineers do not waste time as well. For exam-ple, Fiten Solar Team engineers from Gdynia in cooperation with Cree Yacht and Squall built a 6.2 m long and 2.45 m wide racing boat called Fiten Solar 2012 (improved model from 2011) which was one of the first boats in the world

powered by solar power only. There is enough room for 6 people who could sail on inland waters, day and night witho-ut rest at an average speed of 8 km/h (max. up to 14).

PlaneSolar Impulse 2 is a plane that does not need any fuel. It is a result of 12-year cooperation of over seventy experts in cal-culations, simulations, designing and tests. The originators of it are Swiss pioneers Bertrand Piccard and André Borsch-berg. The first Solar Impulse 1 project gained 8 world records as a first solar plane able to fly during the night. It crossed two continents and flew over the United States. Version 2 is going to be the most revolutionary plane of all time created in order to fly all over the world, which means a continu-ous flight of five days and nights without fuel and with only one pilot inside. The weight of the plane is only 2300 kg and its huge wing is 72 m long (it is approximately equals the wingspan of Jumbo Jet) and it has 17 000 incorpora-ted silicon cells, having total surface of 269.5 m2, supplying four electrical engines (each of 17.5 V). During the day the cells generate 340 kWh of electric power and charge lithium batteries weighing 633 kg that allow for flight at night. Cur-rently, the Solar Impulse 2 project makes an attempt to fly around the globe. The aeroplane took off in Abu Dhabi and that also where it will finished its flight. As for now, the pilots managed to reach San Francisco on 24 April 2016. The ori-ginators of the project want to go around the globe by the end of 2016.

phot. Solar Impuls 2

17+48 22 424 95 80 / 82

www.eebd.eu

[email protected]: eebd.eu

skype ID: eebd.eu

whatsApp: eebd.eu

In recent years, the United Arab Emirates have been showing growing interest in European market mostly due to superior quality products and services and highly deve-loped innovative technologies. In turn, European entrepre-neurs are willing to broaden their markets.

Emirates & Europe Business Development Cluster was formed in response to the expectations on both sides, in order to integrate the Emirati and European business environment and to provide enhanced methods of communication.

EEBD.eu is an international cooperation organisation for European and Emirati environments. Its activity is based on associating and supporting member institutions: enterprises, governmental units, researchers and

ECONOMICEXCHANGE

INVESTMENTPROJECTS

REDUCING POVERTY& SOCIAL EXLUSION

LEGAL & INVESTMENT SERVICE

TECHNOLOGYTRANSFER

Emirates & Europe Business Development Cluster

Financial products and servicesInnovative technologiesIT marketEnergyWaste managementAgricultural and food industryReal estate industryTransportTourismMilitary technologiesMedicineCulture and art

scientists interested in investment cooperation in the field of:

18

Tracking deliveries at every stage of order execution has always been a crucial factor for the transport and logistics industry (T&L). Although the companies of this branch were the pioneers in implementation of mobile solution and monitoring technologies, they still have a lot to do in order to achieve full transparency of the supply chain. For example, a shipment scanned during loading procedure “vanishes” after leaving the warehouse until it is scanned again on the next check point of its journey. As Daniel Dombach, the director of industrial solutions in Zebra company, points out, the Internet of Things (IoT) enables the companies to track all shipments. The expert also notes that 98 percent of transport and courier services industry experts perceive the Internet of Things as the most strate-gic technological initiative that they are going to tackle during this decade. Mr Dombach enumerates also five steps that enable to use IoT to change the way of running one’s business and to profit from the process named by many observers as “the third industrial revolution”.

phot. Shutterstock

phot. Shutterstock

phot. Shutterstock

Zebra Technologies

everything in detailTo see


inTERnET of ThinGS

Among a wide spectrum of technologies that the Internet of Things provides to modern society, three of them stand out from others:

wireless connectivity: Mobile networks, Wi-Fi and Blueto-oth smoothly interconnect in order to provide connectivity between enterprise systems and smart type devices used for fieldwork: RFID readers, scanners and mobile computers. Even now, in some cases – where steady mobile network co-verage is provided – it is possible to track shipments at eve-ry stage of order. Many logistics operators who deal with air forwarding, are planning to install Wi-Fi networks so that the shipments, delivered by air, could also be tracked all the time.

Sensors: Affordable, intelligent sensors available on the market, enable to transfer the data regarding the status and location of goods by means of scanning or automatic data storage. The sensors also include devices that can commu-nicate with each other and and what is the most important, microchips, barcodes and RFID labels attached to or embed-ded into shipments.

Cloud: The cloud computing technology provides possibility of cost-effective processing, storage and analysis of streams of variables and versatile Big Data sets, generated on site by sensors, mobile computers and RFID readers.

The interest in IoT is enormous. The IDC forecasts that the value of technologies behind IoT will grow from USD 1.3 bil-lion in 2013 to USD 3.04 billion in 2020.1 Moreover, 80% of the companies, operating in the transport and logistics indu-stry, which took part in the survey conducted by the Editorial team of the Green Economy, are ready to introduce changes aiming at implementation of IoT.2 Is such huge interest in In-ternet of Things reasoned?

merits of ioT

We reckon that the Internet of Things has potential for trans-porting various processes within companies from transport and logistics industry. For example: if we are able to track shipments as soon as they leave the warehouse until they are delivered to the customer’s door, and the customers have ac-cess to detailed information on the expected time of delive-ry, then the ratio of shipments delivered on the first attempt will surely increase. The possibility of real-time monitoring of shipments status (e.g. frozen food), will enable improving ma-nagement of goods – thanks to sensors installed in the vehic-les it will be possible to monitor temperature fluctuations and control the work of cooling aggregates. Moreover, in the case of failure, both the driver and the head office will be informed about it, thus necessary actions will be taken e.g. cancelation of the transport or sending a substitute vehicle. Additionally, the data collected from the entire supply chain will ensure that the standards concerning conformity and legal regula-tions are followed – from working time of drivers, through the way of goods management to speed of vehicles and many others. What is more, the companies will have more clarity about the goods, carried by their vehicles. Respecti-vely, it may result in a better planning and more efficient use of loading space. The degree of detail of the data collected by sensors responsible e.g. for measurement of travel time and covered distance, will significantly facilitate planning of the best times and routes of deliveries by fleet managers, will save time and definitely, the money.

However, the gradual improvement of results concerning time and efficiency of the entire supply chain is the greatest merit. It may be expected that the implemented solutions will improve work efficiency of the warehouse staff (they will easier find and complete shipments), and ensure better cu-stomer service. Moreover, the number of queries to dispat-chers regarding current status of deliveries will decrease, and as a result, the number of conversations between dispatchers and drivers also shall be reduced. The described phenome-non indicates changes which are taking place in the area of efficiency within transport and logistics companies.

interesting future

IoT provides new possibilities for efficiency e.g. the goods vehicles in road transport can be automatically controlled in order to form groups that will enable them to travel in predefined intervals and with a standard speed for opti-mising fuel consumption*. In a bit more distant future it will be possible to use unmanned vehicles for transport services.

*Source: The Internet of Things: making the most of the Second Digi-tal Revolution. UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser, 2014

Better results thanks to ioT

According to specialists, the best profits from implemen-tation of solutions of the Internet of Things concerning shipment and transport are the following: • compliance with regulations improved by 46 percent• delivery procedures improved by 43 percent• safety improved by 44 percent• cost efficiency improved by 43 percent• visibility within the supply chain improved by 44 per-

cent

20

Similarly, as in the case of new technology, its implemen-tation involves certain risks. In a recent survey conducted by Forrester among companies from transport and logistics industries3, a question was raised about the most serious obstacles that could hinder implementation of this solu-tion. The respondents were concerned about the privacy and safety, total costs, complexity and relative immaturi-ty of this technology. On the basis of the feedback, Da-niel Dombach, the director of industrial solutions in Zebra Technologies, claims that the companies which intend to implement IoT in their business activity should consider five issues.

EvoluTion inSTEAd of REvoluTion

Some observers speak about “revolution” in possibilities of transport and logistics companies, suggesting the necessity to apply radical changes in work processes, though it does not necessary have to look like this – in many cases it is possible to use already existing technologies within IoT: from wireless networks, through mobile computers, to office software. With gradual dissemination of wireless broadband networks, the process of implementation of the Internet of Things may be quicker and cheaper than initially expected. We are convinced that seeing the full picture is up to us.

References:

1. Worldwide and Regional Internet of Things (IoT) 2014–2020 Forecast: A Virtuous Circle of Proven Value and Demand IDC.

2. A survey conducted by Forrester among 592 companies around the world at the request of Zebra Technologies.

3. A survey conducted by Forrester among 592 companies around the world at the request of Zebra Technologies.

phot. Shutterstock


Five steps to IoT

RevIew oF pRocesses Though it is the exception rather than the rule, in transport and logistics industry there are still companies that use paper methods of shipments management. The activities performed “on paper” must be definitely moderni-sed by digitising them. It can be achieved by installing the sensors, introducing mobile computers, scanners and RFID readers for automatic data storage and automation of processes – from acceptance of delivery, through its arranging, completion, packing, transit to delivery note. Implementation of these technologies shall constitute the foundation for a strategy based on IoT.

InTRoducIng InTellIgenT soluTIons In waRehouses

New technologies can improve work of warehouses by making it efficient. For instance, the technology of light signalling based on bluetooth may help workers to quickly and accurately locate products destined for completion. On the other hand, the data stream that comes from sensors, RFID labels and barcodes allows to monitor the level of SKUs (stock keeping units) as well as conduct the automation of orders in case if stock levels drop below a certain level.

analysIs oF connecTIvITy Amount of data, processed through Wi-Fi in warehouses, is expected to substantially increase. Therefore, we highly recommend to carry out a network analysis and increase its bandwith, if required. Furthermore, various types of data would be stored. It is worth noting that e.g. operational data regarding the status of key equip-ment in the warehouse can be commercially sensitive. Giving this, an efficient network security system should be provided. The data gathered on site also require protection and and this is possible due to the creation of virtual private networks, designed to send data from sensors and mobile computers through a safe connection.

MaTchIng vehIcles wITh The neT Equipping vehicles in sensors would provide its users priceless data on driver’s activity and operation of the vehicle. In addition to that, thanks to sensors it will be possible to receive real-time updates on operation of vehicles, improving the level of safety (e.g. of perishable goods). Taking into account the fact that coverage of mobile networks covers the majority of routes in Europe, both the vehicles and the goods may stay in constant contact with office systems.

pRepaRIng FoR The InTRoducTIon oF changes IoT guarantees receiving the detailed, company-wide data in real-time. Saving, processing as well as using the data may require the implementation of a new, modernised analitycal systems. The systems based on cloud-com puting technology reduce cost and enable processing enormous amount of data. Such approach is indispensa-ble for creating stream of information on the basis of which it is easier to make decisions aiming at improving performance.

22

innovative Measurement systems Technologies for monitoring of load transport conditionsPiotr Miklaszewski

Nowadays, the geographical distance does not constitute an obstacle and is not even the main factor when cho-osing production sites, searching for suppliers and new markets. All means of transport develop and complement one another in such a way that the only worrying issue is the timeliness of deliveries and the condition of delivered goods. Large number of competing companies in a given branch of industry leads to the point that the margin for further competing with the time of delivery and its price becomes very narrow. The transport conditions of the delivered goods are the factor that soon is going to be decisive when concerning the quality of freight transport. Why is it going to be this way? Namely, the goods and the vehicle are both under the risk of many dangerous phenomena. Some of them are caused by humans and others result from the natural environment. Meanwhile, most damages are impossible to be detected until there is physical contact with the goods when they reach their destination. However, it is often too late to determine where and who is responsible for a given damage.

phot. www.greenit.pl

truck

60 %

50 %

40 %

30 %

20 %

10 %

0 %ship airplane

damage value frequency of event

warehouse

Source: Monitoring cargo conditions - a crucial component of risk manage-

ment in intermodal transport, Transport Week 2014

70 %

60 %

50 %

40 %

30 %

20 %

10 %

0 %

damage value frequency of event

theft rough handling

enviroment conditions

collisions temperature


iS iT REAlly A PRoBlEm?

According to ECE Global , manufacturers and distribu-tors of perishable goods (pharmaceutics, frozen foods, dairy, seafood, medicines, chemicals) annually transport 5 billion pallets with the total value of 2.6 quadrillion of US dollars. Moreover, the total sales value in the phar-maceutical and biomedical sectors is expected to grow from 142 billion of US dollars in 2011 to 215 billion of US dollars in 2018. According to the same institution, the loss from improperly executed logistic and trans-port operations also run into billions of dollars. For the frozen food sector it was 32 billion dollars in 2013, for the dairy sector it was 34 billion dollars, and in the pharmaceutical sector the damages reached 5.4 billion dollars. The above data are not everything because the transport damages are the problem of all industries.

The losses attributable to damages incurred in the logi-stic chain have various origins and causes. They are nor-mally analysed for responsibility of the logistic process participants and risk, frequency and value of the events. This, on the one hand, allows to create proper compen-sation mechanisms and, on the other hand, to develop effective methods for limiting the risks of such events.

As one can see, the damages in warehouses constitute only 2% of the events, 48% of the events occurred du-ring road transport, 25% of the events concern maritime transport and about 18% air transport. However, it is worth noting that the value of damages in air transport is disproportionately high when compared to other me-ans of transport.

The next chart depicts the most frequent causes of loss:.

Chart 2: The value of damages and frequency of loss by the indivi-

dual causes

Chart 1: The value of damages and frequency of loss events in the

logistic chain.

Rough handling, which is careless handling of the load (exces-sive stress, shock, impacts, etc.) causes 60% of the events. On the other hand, the environmental conditions (e.g. inadequate humidity, atmospheric pressure), collisions and improper tem-perature are the causes of a relatively small number of events, but they generate substantial loss. This is because they affect the entire load that is in a given vehicle.

SoluTionS To ThE PRoBlEm

Partially the problem is tackled by insuring goods. Unfortuna-tely, it is just an apparent solution. Firstly, payment of com-pensation does not proportionally compensate the loss of time required for manufacturing and transport of new goods, what can play a crucial role e.g. in the case of pharmaceu-tical products or for stability of companies, whose business activity depends on highly specialised products. Secondly, it is simply a problem of wastage which is disastrously ignored in the developed countries. After all, the money does not con-tribute to finding the exact location and cause of the damage. Nowadays, a great amount of goods are shipped by several means of transport within a single supply chain. What is more, several different contractors may be involved in a single type of transport. “The problem arises when the insurer compensa-tes for the damage and the companies suspected for inflicting its start casting blame on each other. This leads to dilution of responsibility, and in practice makes it impossible to clearly indicate the one responsible for the damage and to establish at which stage of transport the damage is inflicted. Having this in mind, it seems even more difficult to rationally determine the risk and to predict some events before we start a logistic operation” –Jakub Fijewski, an expert in implementation of Internet of Things in logistics, says. This state of affairs makes it impossible to choose a reliable contractor and build positive business relationship. With more and more efficient reloading procedures in the intermodal freight transport, the possibility

Source: Monitoring cargo conditions - a crucial component of risk manage-

ment in intermodal transport,Transport Week 2014

24

to detect the failures and when they happened will become even harder.

ThE omniPRESEnT inTERnET iS ThE SoluTion

The global network has spanned almost the entire Earth. Along with its development, people started connecting further parts of reality with the virtual world. Even now it seems that the Internet and technologies are present in our every activity. However, as Maciej Szeptycki, technical director of Cisco Systems Poland, said during one industry meeting , it is estimated that currently there are 12.5 bil-lion of devices connected to the Internet, but it constitutes only 1 percent of all objects that can be connected to the network. The global network of computers is being trans-formed to the global network of devices and things, the so called Internet of Things, and for every computer or smart-phone there are several other devices connected to the network. However, before long something will be created, or rather it already exists, something what was named by Szeptycki the market of “The Internet of Everything”. Three sorts of connections are present there: machine-machine, human-machine, and human-human.

The Ericsson company prepared a report where they esti-mate that after the year 2020 there will be over 50 billion of online devices worldwide. What is more, as Mr Szep-tycki indicated, the value of the “Internet of Everything” market may reach 19 trillion of US dollars. Therefore, we will gradually develop new solutions which will connect the elements of physical world which, until now, have not been present in the virtual world. The way of using and analysing the data generated from these connections is the second and equally important element of this process. This trend covers all aspects of life, including transport in its wider sense.

iT iS hAPPEninG now

Even today, almost every transport company uses at least the simplest telematics system. Nevertheless, the solutions concentrate mainly on monitoring the working time and activity of drivers, communicating with them,

assistance in achieving an eco-friendly style of driving and choosing the best routes, as well as tracking the-ir current location. When taking all the above mentio-ned aspects into account, the systems strictly caring for the load will become a natural complementation of this branch of economy.

The solution to this are loggers - devices recording parame-ters of various physical forces affecting a given load. These devices are already present on the market, but majority of them work offline and just collect data. Most of the devices store limited data (usually temperature and humidity). The reading takes place after the goods reach their destination what makes it impossible to react quickly and minimise the losses. A complete and valuable solution is where the trans-ported goods send real-time information if they are carried in unfavourable conditions. “If all carried loads (and every single shipment – editor’s interjection) sent the data about the conditions of their transport, it would be possible to pre-cisely determine the cause of each damage and, as a result, indicate the entity responsible in a given moment for the carried goods. Analysis of such data would certainly stream-line the process of loss indemnification and provide the data for the risk assessment. Today we are lacking a clear-cut tool to easily determine markers of risk in the entire supply chain, and especially in the transport process or so called logistic gap (reloading, loading, unloading)” – Fijewski explains. Mo-reover, real-time data about damage to the carried goods like vaccines, human organs, blood, etc. will make it possible to react quickly and send another delivery before the “cu-stomer” identifies the problem at the place of destination. This functionality is also crucial for detecting abnormalities when transporting hazardous goods which, if damaged, may in large scale endanger third parties.

There are already some solutions concerning this aspect available on the market. For example, Fedex from February 2014 provides a service of monitoring the status of consi-gnment. “The system consists of two tools that record the parameters of a given shipment, which is placed into the container with the shipment. The second part is a web appli-cation, which enables the customer to monitor the location and other parameters of the shipment in near real-time” –

phot. Green Logger

Fall from +/-2g to +/-16g

Pressure fluctuations from 50 to 10000 hPa

Shocks from +/-2g to +/-8g

Measurement of the distance from the base station and change of output

power of the transmitter

Tilts with the precision of 1 degree

Measurement and analysis of light

Temperaturefrom -40oC to 85oC

Humidity from0% to 100%

Power consumption in POWER OFF mode (logger is off)

- less than 0.5 uA

Power consumption in NORMAL mode(logger measures

and communicates with ASR)- approx. 4 mA

Power consumption in sleep mode (sleep logger)

- less than 15 uA


explains Mariusz Mik, the Chief Executive Officer for ope-rations in Poland. The sensors record relative humidity, tem-perature, exposure to light, shock and barometric pressure. The device is equipped with a dry ice probe, which measures temperatures from -80°C to +60°C, and also a cryogenic probe which can monitor shipments within the span of tem-peratures from -195°C to +60°C. Unfortunately, the given service is available in Poland only for international shipment, moreover, it is not simple and easy in use and as Mik indica-tes, it is most often applied by medical and pharmaceutical industries. As proven by time, functionality and usefulness of this service is extremely narrow and available only for units that do not have an access to other alternative market.

More accessible, efficient and cheaper device may, however, prove to be a product, developed by the Polish capital. That device is available for all shippers and carriers regardless of their size and area of operation. The Green Logger device developed by the Green IT company, apart from a wide span of parameters (its possibilities are depicted on the two gra-phic diagrams), is distinguished by small size – 5-7 mm thick, 50-80 mm in diameter – depending on the design version, independence from external energy sources (1.5 year of bat-tery life), or an executive control module (remote switch-off, or switch-on of the logger, e.g. temporarily during air trans-port to prevents interference with aircraft instruments). In fact, all the data is collected simultaneously by one device. The device itself constitutes a component of a much broader system that has a high degree of functionality and ability to adapt to multiple tasks. The monitoring system is an open system that is constantly developing, enriching itself with new functionalities.

As was mentioned earlier, Green Logger is just a single ele-

ment of the entire system – the Green Control System, which comprises of peripherals (data recorders) and appli-cations integrating and processing the measurement data in the cloud computing - the Green Cloud.

The Green ASR loggers are designed for geolocation of a vehicle, monitoring its technical parameters, diagnosing and detecting states of emergency. Apart from standard data like speed and location in relation to GPS satellites, the loggers will collect information about their battery levels, overload, gradient and tilt. It differs from the classic telematics systems in such a way that an automatic detection of accidents and collisions can be set on the basis of the measurement data. It can also automatically send alerts about emergency situ-ations, and also even remotely control the central lock and closing of side windows. Green ASR is also the element that helps taking advantage of all functions of the logger.

The Green Control Web is a superior system managing the work of loggers and working in the cloud computing environ-ment where data virtualisation from the loggers, exchange of the data, its analysis, and communication with the external environment takes place. The software is installed by the se-rvice provider, namely Green IT which is responsible for its maintenance. Such a model of using this application is co-nvenient for the customers (logistics, forwarding agents and transport companies) and allows them to make additional savings because it does not require to hire an entire IT team to manage it. Each user logs into the system by using his/her unique identifier (Green ID).

Green Control Mobile, which is a set of applications for An-droid 4.0 / 5.0 platform for mobile phones and tablets, en-sures functionality of the Green Control Web platform on

Scales of values of these parameters:

LIGHT

DISPLACEMENT

TEMPERATURE

STRESS

GAS CHEMICALS

HUMIDITY

LOCATION

FLOW

NOISEVIBRATIONS

EXECUTIVECONTROL

TILT

LEAKAGESTANK LEVEL

MAGNETISATION

CURRENTPARAMETERS

26

mobile devices. The applications are based on the user ID which is shared with the Green Control Web.

The crucial features of Green Logger include on-going data recording in the logger memory (if the memory volume is full, the older data is replaced by the most recent records), auto-matic data transfer to any Green ASR logger which is in ran-ge – after the pre-set memory volume is full or in the event of emergency situation, possibility to set alerts and threshold values of parameters from the web application and mobile application, possibility to work without the Green ASR logger and to manually send the data to the server by means of NFC technology or a mobile application.

At present the Green Control System is undergoing tests of the prototype of the entire system and peripherals (loggers). By the end of 2016 it is planned to introduce a pilot system and conduct its commercialization in the form of a SaaS (So-ftware as a Service).

iS iT GoinG To woRk?

The problem was noticed by global institutions and go-vernmental organisations which work on introducing le-gal solutions which would accelerate the changes in this sector. For example, the European Union introduces the 2013/C68/01 – Good Distribution Practice of Medicinal Products for Human Use regulation where indication of func-tionality of environmental parameters of the carried goods

measurement constitutes one of the most significant fac-tors. Another example is the SFDA – Good Supply Practices Guidance regulations in China. In Poland, a project of The Centre for Analyses in Transport and Infrastructure based on monitoring environmental parameters is aimed at certifica-tion of carriers for safety of carried goods, and development of a national system for collection and analysis of damage data.

Loggers provide benefits for all participants of the logistics and transport chain. Each of the involved entities will be able to use the data for its own purposes and, at least in a minimal way, influence the entire process of transport qu-ality improvement, thus improving its attractiveness among the competition. As a result of such solutions, the forwar-ding companies can control the processes and quality of se-rvices provided by carriers. Loggers will become an essential link in the already developed future systems, e.g. controlling conditions in a given container. They may be applied com-pletely outside the transport industry if human resourceful-ness chooses that way.

univERSAliTy noT only foR loGiSTiCiAnS

Green Control System operates in GreenCloud cloud com-puting environment, which is the basis for Green Team – a business and development services platform created by Smart IT cluster. Green Control System is only one exam-ple of applications that can be based on it in many areas of life and economy – from logistics through intelligent power


References:

1. www.eceglobal.com2. The 17th edition of Cisco Forum which took place between 18

and 20 March of 2015.3. Ericsson white paper „More than 50 billion devices connected”,

February 2011.4. Telecommunication and IT solutions for the process manage-

ment

grids, city management to telemedicine as well as corpora-tion and SME management.

Green Team Platform is open and available to everyone who is interested in creating IT products in SaaS model (Software as a Service). The cloud computing is a model enabling common, comfortable, available on demand ac-cess to shared range of possible to configure processing sources. Cloud computing refers to renting computer infrastructure (devices) as well as apps, shared via the Internet.

The use of cloud computing possibilities in case of Green Control System enables the client to avoid costs connec-ted with the necessity to employ the whole IT team and constitutes a great alternative to company data centre. Making only small investment in IT infrastructure, the user is able to work with personalised system, managed and maintained by the supplier. While configuring proper sco-pe of services, the customer can manage, for example: its fleet using GreenCars, the management of the team and information flow using Green Office or Green CRM and many others.

The advantage of GreenCloud system is its continuous expansion and the fact that it is designed for individual needs of customers. The universality of the software is proven by the system of available apps.

Such model enables the client to gain additional savings. They do not have to invest in their own server room with proper infrastructure and system that would guarantee uninterrupted operation.

The main functions of cloud system are:• system of storing and exchanging data in the cloud,• management of the resources,• safe authorisation of servers and services to the reso-

urces,• integration with external systems on the resources

centre level,• integration of device designers with apps creators.

The applications integrated with GreenCloud have high level of protection which is ensured by:• control of access to CRM data,• tracking the data,• confidentiality and integrity of the data,• backups, • physical access to the device.

why iS iT SuCCESSful?

The system, as all other systems, has its flaws and me-rits. Unique and in fact the most important is the human factor. It is the one that plays the supervisory role over smooth operation of the system, software, applications and all other elements which in fact are interesting to the customers and are assessed by them. We all know the old saying: “Fine feathers make fine birds”. It does not matter how stable the system is or how fast does it process the information. What is very important, if not the most important, is the extent to which the system is customer-friendly, and what is also crucial, what ad-vantages can it have for its user. In this case, modularity of the system is an unquestionable asset, its ability to be modified and its constant development, that the staff of experts is taking care of, adopting the products to individual expectations and working on its reliability all the time.

28

Katarzyna Anita Piotrowska

which means it is time for emission-free-mobilitygrEEN MoBiliTy

Travelling is an eternal need of human race, and a broadly defined transport is the factor that can satisfy that need. It is dominated by passenger cars and most people think that it is the most comfortable means of transport. Development of motorisation in Poland is a positive phenome-non from the economic point of view but what about the natural environment?

Increasing number of motor vehicles on Polish roads is the factor that has a very harmful impact on the environment. It should be noted that road transport is the second biggest so-urce of greenhouse gasses emissions, responsible for 12% of the total carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, an alternative which is given by balanced transport that aims at protecting the natural environment is worth considering. Electric passen-ger cars and buses are the examples of means of transport that utilise the latest technological solutions thanks to which we can increase our energy independence and cut emissions of greenhouse gases.

Eliminating harmful substances that get into the atmosphere is not the only advantage of the electric transport. Electric engi-nes work almost noiselessly and their efficiency is much higher than in the case of combustion engines. What is more, they transform from 70 to even as much as 90 percent of energy

to mechanical energy, what makes them generate far less heat so they do not need to be cooled intensively.

Environmental protection is going to be the main target, but nature is not the only aspect which may profit from that. Elec-tric engines have a very high torque what makes them much more dynamic. Additionally, the cost of driving the distance of 100 km is several times lower. Economic safety is yet ano-ther advantage as the changes of electricity prices are much more predictable than fluctuations of oil prices. Zero emission of gasses and particulates as well as a very quiet operation makes the EV’s a very promising alternative to traditional com-bustion vehicles.

ElECTRiC vEhiClES

Passenger cars are currently the most popular means of trans-

phot. Krzysztof Panek


port. Our society is more often focused on comfort and chooses travelling by own car. When having regard to the fact that pollution, especially from the exploitation of oil, can cause huge and, above all, irreversible harm to the natural environment, and can also be a serious threat to our safety, we should strive to introduce the largest possible number of electric vehicles on the Polish roads.

Low costs, resulting from the elimination of excised liquid fuels, and no oil circulation are unquestionably some of the most si-

gnificant benefits of electric vehicles. Addi-tionally, the EV’s are often air-cooled what additionally cuts the costs. Moreover, the electric units are substantially smaller than those propelled by fuel, and this makes

it possible to organise more space inside the vehicle or reduce its overall dimen-

sions.

Currently, the Polish electric vehicles market is still growing and developing. Available electric vehicles are still the mino-rity on the market and on the roads, especially in the mass transport sector. It should be remembered that the society chooses the services of taxi companies just as willingly as their own cars. Thus, it is worth thinking about a cheaper replacement of car which would be also more cost-efficient.

uRBAn PuBliC TRAnSPoRT

The increasing amount of cars on Polish roads results in de-terioration of the natural environment and the omnipresent road congestions. Because of the situation on the roads, many users have decided to choose urban transport servi-ces. However, using cars instead of the modes of collective transport will not save our environment.

Even today many Polish cities plan electrification of urban transport. This is a clear sign of significant changes and also development of the electric motorisation sector. However, one question arises: what about the time required to charge such a large vehicle? Contrary to what one might expect, the vehicles do not require building expensive infrastructure, only point traction infrastructure on the bus stops or bus terminals is enough, and this results in cuing the expenses.

Inductive charging is one of the ways to replenish electri-city without the need of longer stops. In that case, the bus is equipped with a charging device installed in the chassis

which is lowered when the passengers get in or out and, at the same time, in the spots where busses stop, under the road, an inductive loop is installed. Mounting an arm with a head resembling a pantograph on the roof of the vehicle is yet another method. In that case, the charging also takes place at the bus stops. What is important, charging of the battery is practically unnoticeable for the passengers and does not influence the stopping time of the bus. However, it is required to select proper batteries and routes of the bus.

The energy efficiency of the electric buses currently allows covering from 40 to about 240 km, depending on the usage of additional devices like air conditioning, heating or digital information.

ChARGinG infRASTRuCTuRE

Introduction of electric vehicles on the Polish market is a big step forward. Though, we should not forget about the char-ging infrastructure. The availability of charging infrastructure plays a very important role in maintaining the pace of growth of the EV market. Ensuring a large number of charging sta-tions is indispensable if the electric vehicles are to play a bigger role than just being city cars. Thanks to advanced charging infrastructure, the small ranges of electric vehicles will no longer constitute a problem in longer journeys.

Currently, charging of vehicles is popular in public places. Direct current (DC) char-ging points are being installed in strategic locations enabling to replenish the batte-ries in less than 30 minutes. Installing fast alternating current (AC) charging points in places where a typical user spends more than one hour, e.g. car parks, by the ci-

nemas and trade centres, is an interesting solution.

Electric vehicles charging stations may be equipped with one or several charging points and have incorporated intel-ligent energy management functions. They use GSM/GPRS for communicating with the vehicle and the power grid. As a result, checking the availability of the station or performance of the charging process is not a problem. Development of in-frastructure is the crucial element for ensuring comfortable use of electric vehicles. Importantly, even today it is possible to install such station at home, on the garage roof or as an external power distributor, what makes it much easier for the potential users to control the battery levels of their vehicles.

30

ECological and EConomical Transport

Environmental protection is one of many benefits of using the green means of transport. After all, the electricity can be generated from the renewables and, as a result, the CO2 emissions to the atmosphere would be cut. The EVs are also very cost-effective. They are characterised by high efficien-cy and high torque, what allows minimising the travel costs. Additionally, the latest technologies enable breaking ener-gy recovery what substantially increases the vehicle range and prolongs the life-cycle of the breaks. As a result, using electric vehicles is beneficial both for the environment and

our wallet but what about the performance? Electric vehicles are, by any means, no worse than the combustion vehicles. They do not require gearbox or clutch which is a great driving comfort and, thanks to the high torque, their acceleration is incomparably better and, at the same time, they travel noise-lessly. What is more, even today we can convert any car to EV and, as a result, the user is not restricted to choose only from a dozen car models currently available at the dealers. Therefore, the green transport is not only the alternative for the traditional vehicles but also the necessity.


32

phot. Shutterstock


iNfrasTruCTurE shaPEs MoBiliTythe alternative fuels for infrastructure developmentAnna Dąbrowska, The Foundation Center for Analyses in Transport and Infrastructure

As infrastructure shapes mobility, the key to the decarbonisation of transport and its dependence on oil reserves is developing not only new technologies in the field of alterna-tive systems of powering motor vehicles, but also necessary for powering motor vehicles infrastructure. No changes can be possible without the proper network and its wise use.

Transport is fundamental to European economy and socie-ty. The mobility of European Union citizens may strengthen internal market and improve the quality of life, whereas transport of goods contributes to economic growth and the creation of new jobs. Based on a study made by the European Commission1, the transport sector is a major and growing source of environmental pollutants emission such as noise, substances, harmful for life forms, and greenho-use gases, causing progressive climate changes. That is the reason why the European Commission has set a system of defined objectives for member states. Their aims are to de-carbonise transport and define measurable success rate. It is predicted that greenhouse gases emission will be lowe-red by 20% by 2030 in comparison to 2008 and decarbo-nisation level will amount to 80% by 2050 in comparison to 1990. In order to fulfill the abovementioned scenario, intensive measures in the areas of implementing new tech-nologies are undertaken, especially when concerning alter-native methods of powering motor vehicles.

ElECTRiCiTy, ThE moST PRoSPECTivE AlTERnATivE foR oil

Decarbonisation turns out not to be the only reason for searching of effective alternatives for petrol and diesel oil. Over the coming decades, oil will be the scare resource, which would come from uncertain suppliers. As was recen-tly noticed by the International Energy Agency, the less the world successful in decarbonisation process, the higher will be the prices for oil. In 2010, the amount of oil imported by EU was valued for around € 253 million and in 2015 the

value of import amounted to € 204 million.2 The lack of suitable solution of the oil issue may significantly worsen people’s ability to travel and affect economic security, infla-tion, trade balance and the overall competitiveness of the European economy. Since the first big oil crisis which hap-pend 40 years ago, there has been no significant change in transport system although technical progress as well as cost and energy effective policies were observed. Howe-ver, transport may be energy efficient, as 96% of EU energy needs in this sector is dependent on oil and oil products.

Alternative fuels, especially electricity, is a method to limit dependencies on oil. Electricity as the most prospective al-ternative to fuel, which can replace traditional fossil fuels, is also recognised by the European Commission in commu-nication on European strategy for alternative fuels. More-over, it is said to have the greatest potential for reducing CO2 emissions coming from transport sector.

infRASTRuCTuRE, A PRECondiTion foR dEvElo-PinG ElECTRomoBiliTy

The main obstacle that stands on the way of introducing electric vehicles on the market and gaining customer ac-ceptance is the lack of charging infrastructure. Infrastruc-ture shapes mobility and no big changes can be possible without providing charging points network and creating the tool enabling its wise use.

On the global scale, geing the access to charging points is easier, but still insufficient. In 2012, the total number of charging points in the world ammounted 5000, while in

34

Europe its ammount was equal to 7250. In 2014, 3869 charging points entered global market, from which 1978 appeared in Japan, 1181 in Europe, 686 in the United States and 24 in other countries. In Europe, the leading country in terms of the number of charging points is Ger-many ( 2 thousand), then France (1.6 thousand), Holland (1.7 thousand), Spain (1.4 thousand) and Great Britain (0.7 thousand). The first country in Central Europe in which charging infrastructure was fully developed was Estonia, opening 165 charging points in 2013. They were located alongside motorways at the distances of from 40 up to 60 km and in urban areas.

Developing charging infrastructure in EU countries de-pends not only on the goodwill of member states, which representatives want to implement sustainable low-car-bon development strategy, but also on particular law pro-visions. According to Directive 2014/94/EU of the Euro-pean Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2014 on alternative fuels infrastructure development, member states shall ensure that sufficient number of publicly ac-cessible charging points will be established by 31 Decem-ber 2020 to allow driving electric vehicles in urban/sub-urban agglomerations, other densely populated areas and infrastructure networks determined by member states. In Poland, the number of publicly accessible charging points has been predicted as 46000 in 2020, whereas in 2014 there were 49 accessible charging points and 120 char-ging plugs. In comparison to 2011, when the number of charging points was 27, average annual growth of charging points was 9.

Unfortunately, “mytesla” maps (updated systematically for users of this car producer) indicate that currently (ed. April 2016), the number of working charging points 2014 has decreased from 41 to 8 stations, in comparison to 2014, and at the same time as much as 3 of them are still be-ing rebuild. The numbers clearly show a great activity in expanding charging infrastructure in larger cities as well as between them.

Cities and urban agglomerations successively, but slow-ly, undertake activities, aiming at charging infrastructu-re extension. Nevertheless, the development of electric mobility may be substantially limited unless the charging network enabling interurban relocating is established. The completion of charging points network in urban areas with interagglomerative network is a necessary step and was confirmed by the Polish Ministry of Economy in document published in 2012 titled: Conditions for implementing e--mobility integrated system in Poland. The vision of elec-

tric mobility development included therein covers the exe-cution of electric cars utilisation system, concerning large cities, motorways and fast roads in the first instance.

The investments for the establishment of a coherent infrastructure of alternative fuels supply points requires public support, in

order to become profitable. Over the support for the development of a coherent infrustruc-ture of alternative fuels supply points will be granted by the European Comission, TEN-T funds, Cohesion Fund, structural funds and European Investment Bank in the form of lo-ans and other mechanisms, which have not

been specified yet.

iEviS PRojECT - inTERoPERABlE ElECTRiC vEhiC-lES foR infRASTRuCTuRE SySTEm

Two projects for the implementation of the electric vehicles’ charging infrustructure have been already issued in the first quarter of the previous year in Poland. One of them, IEVIS, is a pilot project of developing interoperable infrastructure of electric vehicles charging stations together with assistan-ce systems on the selected section of TEN-T network in Po-land. The project was initiated by the leading clusters, wor-king in the innovative transport development field, namely Green Cars Cluster and Green Electric Cars - the project coordinator.

The concept behind the IEVIS project covers study, imple-mentation and evaluation parts. The study part will describe the business model of interoperable infrastructure of elec-tric vehicles charging stations in Poland as well as technical documentation (pre-project and project), marketing strate-gy, informational and promotional strategy and the project on toll system for pilot implementation. Necessary licences and administrative decisions will also be issued. Another aspect of the project is test implementation of interoperable infrastructure of electric vehicles charging stations together with assistance systems, including energy consumption mo-nitoring system, traffic information and toll system on A1 and A2 motorways in both directions. As soon as test imple-mentation, the assessment and verification of the business model is done, the implementation of the strategy of exten-ding the network of charging points can be developed.

It is expected that the project will profoundly increase the dynamic development of electromobility in Poland, which in turn, would create tangible benefits for its economy. Deve-


References:

1. The White Paper of the European Commission: A roadmap to a single transport area towards a competitive and resource--efficient transport system.

2. Own study based on: The European Commission statistics on EU crude oil imports and crude oil supply cost. Source: https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/statistics/eu-crude-oil-imports

lopment of innovative electromobility in Poland may contri-bute to shortening of infrastructure development distance and transport system quality between Poland and EU 15 countries. That is one of the core elements underpinning the implementation of the cohesive policy objectives, susta-inable socio-economic development and increasing of the overall social welfare within the EU. Indeed, Poland may be-come a leader in establishing such solutions within Europe, which may consequently lead to the promotion of innova-tive processes both on infrastructure and electric vehicles.

STRATEGiES, PlAnS And PRojECTS – A SySTEmiC APPRoACh TowARdS ThE dEvEloPmEnT of low--CARBon moBiliTy

No single project is able to change the local transport sys-tem. That is why low-carbon and innovative transport de-velopment should be considered holistic and multidimen-sional. The approach like this has been adopted in IEVIS project, which is one of the elements of long-term, compre-hensive activities, standing in favour of increasing energy efficiency and innovative transport systems, undertaken by Green Cars Cluster in cooperation with other clusters. As part of the strategy, besides IEVIS project, the partner clu-sters have also originated a series of other initiatives aiming at complementing and extending the project scope, e.g.:

� The Polish – Czech Transport Development Forum, the platform destined to enhance cooperation among scien-tists, entrepreneurs, Polish and Czech public administra-tion representatives, concentrating on mutual activities of sustainable transport development.

� European Green Mobility Alliance (EGMA) - European Strategic Cluster Partnerships, which activities are dedi-cated to low-carbon mobility, bringing together dozens of cluster organisation from 6 biggest European coun-tries,

� Smart Electric Mobility in Integrated Transport Systems (SEMITS) project, which serves for preparing and imple-menting innovative tools and business models, suppor-ting electromobility development in cities and agglome-rations, conducted by 8 partners in three countries in Central Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia).

Due to the implementation of the mentioned projects and initiatives, taken by entrepreneurs and scientists, Poland has all chances to become a leader in the innovative trans-port development not only in Central Europe, but in the whole European Union.

phot. Shutterstock

Services

2006

200

180

160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020

Rolling stock Infrastructure Traffic control

50

28

18

7

10

1112 13

13

1415

2227

3030

3234

36

37 4548

4851

55 57

53 53 55 58 62 66 68

36

iNNovaTivE rolliNg sToCk - challenges, vision, prioritiesAnna Dąbrowska, The Foundation Center for Analyses in Transport and Infrastructure

Choosing rail as as means of transport depends on factors such as time and com-fort during the journey as well as its price. Availability and reliability are understood as a certainty of starting a journey, while the achievement of a final destination within the assumed time frame a crucial point. The quality of infrastructure and traffic manage-ment are responsible for time and reliability of journeys, while the comfort depends on the equipment of railway stations, the level of customer services and rolling stock.

Eu, mASoviA And wAlloniA TRAnSPoRT And loGiSTiCS CluSTERinG

Manufacture of rolling stock is the second largest branch of the global railway market with estimated value1 in 2014 reaching EUR 48 billion which constitutes about 32% of the entire railway industry value1. Until 2012 the rolling stock industry was dynamically growing – since 2006 global value of manufacturing market had grown by 70%

to EUR 48 billion. The growth was caused by various factors. In the years 2006 – 2010, the intensive growth of rail market (Chart 1) resulted mainly from execution of high-speed rail – continuing investment projects in France, Italy and Spain, as well as a substantial acceleration of high-speed rail construction in China. For example, in the years 2008 -2010, the high-speed rail market more than doubled its worth from EUR 6 billion in 2008 to EUR 13 billion in 2010.

Chart 1: The value of world rail market from 2006 to 2014 with a forecast until 2020 by manufacturing categories.

Source: Own study based on [1], [2], [3]


phot. Newag Group

250

200

150

100

50

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 20140 8

48

155

128 104

198

43

132

CSR

-500 500 1500 2500 3500 4500 5500

Bombadier

CNR

Alston

Siemens

Transmashholding

CAF

Hyundai Rotem

Kawasaki

GE Transportation

38

During the next period, i.e. from 2010 to 2012, not only high-speed rail growth was responsible for growth of the rolling stock manufacture. Investments in metro develop-ment in large global agglomerations became an important

factor. In that regard, 2012 was a record year (Chart 2) – 198 km of underground railways, including over 150 km in China, were put into use.

Chart 2: The length of underground railways put into use in the years 2007 - 2014.

Source: Own study based on [2]

Chart 3: The first ten world’s largest rolling stock manufacturers in 2012.

Source: Frost&Sullivan, 2012

A dynamic increase of demand for rolling stock on Chine-se market caused also an increase of Chinese manufactu-rers’ potential, who already in 2012 achieved leading po-sitions in world rankings (Chart 3), and overtook previous European leaders.

A competitiveness problem became more serious after 2012 when the rolling stock market experienced stagna-tion – during next two years an increase in the market by merely 0.6% was observed. That slow-down intensified competition between European manufacturers and Chi-

Source: Own study based on [1], [2], [3]


nese companies made it necessary for Europe to take certain actions in order to regain the leading position and maintain their market share. Admittedly, according to experts, years 2015 – 2020 should not be so unfa-vourable like the period of 2012 – 2014 and should be marked by a steady growth; nevertheless, it certainly will not be comparable to the boom of 2006 – 2010 (Chart 4).

According to European manufacturers of the rolling stock being members of UNIFE association2, modern, innova-tive technical and technological solutions should be the answer to challenges of global market until 2020. These solutions should lead to better quality, lower production costs and rolling stock maintenance costs, as well as to generation of additional demand for rail transport servi-ces. However, all significant rolling stock manufacturers already run their own research and development pro-grams and spend in total, over 2.7% of their turnover, which constitutes about EUR 780 million annually, being the third result in Europe after space and defence in-dustry and electronic equipment industry. Starting more intensive research and development programs shall re-quire huge financial funding. Luckily, maintaining the le-ading position of Europe is in the interest of the entire European Union and additionally, the rail sector is its flag exporter with over EUR 8 billion from sales to Non-Eu-ropean markets. Therefore, it is not a coincidence that an efficient way was developed so that the rail sector would not have to compete against other branches in its struggle for European funds on innovation but it had

its own budget for researching technological advantages over their competition.

On this background, the Joint Undertaking Shift2Rail was initiated and coordinated by UNIFE, starting from the development of a preliminary concept in 2010, ending with an official start of the undertaking in 2014. The key objective of Shift2Rail is to create a research program-me, which would be half and half financed by the funds of rail industry and European funds, intended to conduct the research and develop activities within the framework of the Horizon 2020 programme. The total budget of the Shift2Rail programme was set to EUR 920 billion. Its main priorities encompass the key elements of rail industry, such as: rolling stock, infrastructure, traffic management systems as well as IT systems and services necessary to prepare and implement modern transport solutions.

Consequently, the new questions arise: what results can be expected from the implementations of Shift2Rail rese-arch programmes? What rolling stock is going to introduce to European and world railways after the expected EUR 920 billion is spent? The Strategic Rail Research and Inno-vation Agenda3, compiled by the Shift2Rail in consultation with European Rail Agency and a technological platform of the European Rail Research Advisory Council (ERRAC), answers these questions. The plan, as approved by the Council of European Union in February 2015, defines a vision of the rolling stock in the future and key research and development priorities for increasing the role of rail transport in European economy.

Chart 4: dynamics of changes in the rolling stock market value from 2008 to 2014 with a forecast until 2020.

40

According to this plan, the future of the rolling stock looks bright, energy-sufficient, of high

capacity, with optimised life-cycle as well as re-sponsive to changing needs and expectations of customers. A new generation of trains will make it possible to reduce the travel time and to slow wear and tear of railways; and be much environ-

mentally friendly.

The negative effect of noise and vibrations on natural environment will be limited by implemen-tation of innovative solutions and technologies. At the same time, operating reliability of trains will be improved by dedicated technical solu-tions so that travel disruptions are minimised, and punctuality as well as better passenger

service is ensured.

For rail freight faster, more flexible freight trains with in-creased operational efficiency will enable better reliability and cost competitiveness, which are crucial for conqu-ering new market segments. The IT systems will enable trading load areas, they will provide reliable “door to door” services with possibility to track and monitor real-time information about current and expected train position.

These services will increase attractiveness of rail in rail freight sector. At the same time, performance parameters of the rolling stock will be improved. The engines will con-sume less energy, the components will be lighter and it will become a standard to use energy recovery during the process of braking and transfer the energy to the over-head lines.

The implementation of this challenging vision will result from a number of research and development activities for which the Shift2Rail strategic plan defines three key tar-gets:1. Improving quality of services and customer service by

increasing reliability and capacity of the rolling stock as well as passenger comfort.

2. Reducing the costs of purchase and exploitation co-sts of rolling stock including reduction of investment, operational and external costs.

3. Increasing interoperability i.e. following and imple-menting Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSI).

Achieving these targets will be possible thanks to rese-arch and development activities performed in several key areas: train interiors, doors and intelligent access systems, traction, train management and monitoring systems, car-



References:

1. World Rail Market Study forecast 2014 - 2019, UNIFE, 2014. 2. All major European rolling stock manufacturers are the mem-

bers of UNIFE. 3. Strategic Rail Research and Innovation Agenda, ERRAC, 2014.

riage bodies and bogies. When analysing contents of the strategic plan, one can expect that successive genera-tions of trains will be at least:

� more reliable, functional and safer thanks to impro-ving and simplifying those subsystems and interfaces, which are especially prone to failures and defects;

� more resistant to extreme environmental conditions; � more capacious thanks to new technologies of desi-

gning the vehicles, better interior designing and using innovative boarding and disembarking systems;

� more cost-effective and flexible, thanks to optimised mass and functionalities adjusted to different types of loads;

� more energy-efficient, thanks to developing and im-plementing more efficient traction and braking sys-tems, better aerodynamic parameters, smaller and lighter components, lower heat loss in the vehicles as well as improving engine drivers’ skills in terms of energy-efficient train driving techniques;

� more ecological. Noise, emission and vibrations will be reduced by designing innovative solutions e.g. in traction systems, braking, bogies, carriage bodies and doors.

More importantly, Europe is not going to wait for long for many of these innovations. Even today, what is implemen-ted is the range of solutions which already meet most of the described criteria. For example:

� Alstom offers trains with zero emission drive which is based on fuel cells technology,

� Knorr Bremse developed a boarding system for quick and safe boarding and disembarking meeting the ne-eds of disabled persons, and platform door for safe movement of passengers on metro stations and ad-ditionally equipped with additional information func-tions for passengers,

� Bombardier implements modern energy-efficiency management systems and systems for monitoring consumption of energy by rail vehicles. Additionally, it offers railway engines with hybrid drive and with bra-king energy recovery.

Although Polish companies intensively invest in research and development activities. By using the European pro-grammes for support of innovation, the companies enter into cooperation with scientific sector, which results in development of technical solutions, unique in Europe and the whole world.


42

green Cloud- one step ahead to the future of innovation

The new technologies have become an integral part of human fast-moving life. They not just profoundly impact every aspect of our life, but also help to alleviate almost every daily activity. In fact, we may be unaware of their interference in our live. At present, almost in every field of human activity are present informational, telemetrical, cloud-based technologies, which conti-nuously supervise and contribute to the proper operation of particular mechanism. This highly intelligent systems, applications and programs enhance the quality of our life and indirectly im-prove the well-being of the society, taking care of human safety and health. As the amount of in-formation and the stored data is growing immensely, systems which can cope with storing and handling the growing emerging data are needed. It is quite fair to assert that technologies can help the modern community to undergo through all the challenges that faces it at every step.

Alina Archipczuk

In an era of rapid changes and economic progress, the products of technological breakthrough became the top aides of mankind. People are increasingly looking for ways and tools, which are able to facilitate the conduct of business, solve daily problems and routine issues, ac-celerate the advancement of affairs, and most importan-tly - save time, which is now valued more than money. Since we can achieve more in less time, we can devote more time to family or our favorite activities. The saying “time is money” gains now a new meaning without losing its value at all.

modERn TimE-SAvinG TEChnoloGy

So far, the majority of modern IT systems were developed exclusively for the purpose of specialized operations. It resulted in the necessity to divide them between various multifunction and multipurpose systems. The idea of “In-ternet of Things” that has been emerging in the last years, can change the situation immeasurably. Developing new systems so as to maximize integration of different devi-ces, efficient exchange of information between them, as well as their successful connection in the network - are at the heart of the modern world. The Internet increases its significance in the man’s life, by integrating every ob-ject for interaction via embedded systems (International Journal of communication systems, 2012). In this respect, the IoT is opening incredible opportunities for creation of

new applications and programs, intended to improve the quality of life, help businesses and individuals.

What can be done with such a widespread technology? This new concept can reap many benefits, including the ability to collect data and remotely control the conditions under which the particular Internet device is operating; ensure the safety of people and objects; can help people to save money in their households; assist with investing funds; inventory control and energy conservation; cope with subsequent stages of customer service. Moreover, Cloud Computing provides each individual with the uni-que possibility of placing data, own seings and inte-grating many programs in the so-called “cloud”, access to which can be gained in every possible corner of the globe.

Cloud ComPuTinG – An AnSwER To moST PRo-BlEmS

The breakthrough which has been made in the cloud computing during the last decade - is definitely one of the greatest achievements in the history of informatio-nal technologies. The emergence of growing amount of information requires implementation of new technolo-gies for connecting and transmiing data. The natural increase of data in the cloud stems has resulted from the popularization of portable technologies. A computer has


phot. Shutterstock

GreenID

GreenServer

Prosument

GreenAccounts

GreenCRM

GreenSale

GreenCars

GreenAssistance

GreenMailer

GreenOffice

GreenPoint

GreenPanel

GreenFamily

GreenHome

GreenSOS

GreenID

GreenFamily

GreenMED

GreenAlerts

GreenCars GreenPoint

GreenShopGreenNews

GreenEnergy

GreenLogger

Internetof Things

Protectionof Property

Traction Lines

Monitoring

GreenPay

SmartGrid

SmartMetering

Graph 1. Green Cloud scheme.

44

ceased to be a furniture a long time ago, and has beco-me a device that one can carry in the pocket or a bag. As a result of the fact that the number of devices is con-stantly growing and the flow of information is increasing, one problem has occurred, namely the problem of excess data, which nobody use or deletes. The data is not stored on external storage devices, but on external independent servers which are independent of us. This problem is also tackled by data system used in the cloud. Such data is archived so as not to slow down operation of the whole system. Another helpful function of cloud system is the compression of optimized data. The data has to be com-pressed and decompressed quicker and more efficiently in order to avoid the situations, in which the functioning of the system is slowed down. Therefore, new mechanisms of compression are of a great importance. As opposed to universal purpose, advanced experts point out the most significant advantage of the cloud computing - is that it provides individuals with the opportunity to get computer resources without the need tto build a separate computer infrastructure and hire a great team of workers to sup-port it. The same applies to the energy, which does not have to be produced in our households. Indeed, people do not have to construct energy infrastructure within their private households to get access to energy resour-ces. The same way, cloud computing does not require the building of the physical computing basement in house or a company, as all necessary information can be stored, managed and processed remotely by using the compu-ting power and external space. Furthermore, the users

may simultaneously work on the same project and share data in real-time. It is worth mentioning that such way of data keeping remains the most cost-effective, convenient and, above all, safe for the users. The clients who use such solutions, also have constant support of the servi-ce provider. Therefore, they do not have to worry about applications updates, back-up copies and other technical problems.

GREEn Cloud - An inTElliGEnT & vAluABlE Ad-diTion To youR lifE

Green Cloud it is a technology, made by Green IT com-pany, which is a member of the SmartIT Cluster. Green Cloud - is a platform, which represents a unique solution to the inconveniences, encountered by the mankind on the threshold of the information progress. The Green Clo-ud system comprises of three separate, but communica-ting with each other, modules, which consist of mobile application segments, web application segments as well as hardware solution segments. In addition, Green Cloud is compatible with Green ID card, which supervises and manages external services as well as Multipartner loyalty system. Each system works independently and in case of giving certain commands, after authorization, the modu-les communicate with each other. Green Cloud techno-logy ensures individuals affordable costs of processing, storing and analyzing streams of „Big Data”, generated in the field by sensors, mobile computers, built-in systems and RFID readers. It is a system that can adapt to any


application, introduced by the administrator or the user. It is completely open to new purposes and actions of all kinds of developers.

As a single, large-scale platform, Green Cloud posses-ses unlimited facilities and includes countless number of applications, each of which is responsible for carrying out specific operation. However, the universality of this technology lies in the fact that besides already integrated applications, developers have an opportunity of creating and installing new applications and devices as well as pro-viding users with them. Such operation allows constant de-velopment of the technology, devices and applications con-nected with it. Consequently, the attractiveness of services increases and external developers, thanks to BOX platform, can make profit profit, while working in a distance. Inde-ed, the core of Green Cloud innovativeness is the unlimited possibility to cooperate with external developers. As a re-sult, almost any application or software can work within the cloud. This technology is customized to the needs of every single person. It is open to development of any applications and systems in the SaaS and Paas model.

SAfETy

Processing and managing data requires guaranty of high le-vel of safety. The first question that is asked by potential users is the issue of safety of the data transfer and stability of the system. Control over the access and possibility to

make back-up copies are the basic functions of each mo-dern computer system. Green Cloud would not be able to function without this kind of safety measures. At the same time, excessive safety makes customer’s operations within the system more difficult. Good security devices are not inconvenient for the customer. What is more, they cannot cause delays. The cloud has perfectly balanced and precise systems of Access Control List, logging and managing users’ accounts. The nodes can authorize themselves though client certificates and the external applications via OAuth2. Moreover, all connections are encrypted in SSL/TLSv3 pro-tocol. Green cloud is also equipped with system for loca-ting and sharing data with external applications as well as precise system for controlling access to the data. The panel of managing the users enables to control the accounts and prevent unauthorised logging. The system administrators can group the users, distinguish them and allocate the level of access to the data. The object within the system have its own history of editing. All actions trigger adding an entry to the history of the object. It generates the knowledge on the history of each file and users who used it. Back-up copies are generated and stored in protected data bases. The sys-tem makes it impossible to copy data by unauthorized per-sons. This is possible as the servers are located in protected and secured places, which are difficult to access without required authorization.Thus, all these elements comprise a consistent system for logging and managing data, which gi-ves full control over the processes.

The system of functioning includes: � The system of storing and exchanging data within the

cloud, � Service of the resources:

• Synchronized with the master server, • Distributed – data dynamically collected from the

network and sent to the nodes with configurable acceptable delay,

� Safe authorisation of servers and services for the re-sources:• Authorisation through SSL certificates, • Multilevel system of controlling access to the re-

sources, � Integration with external systems at the resource cen-

tre level, � The platform integrating creators of the devices with

producers of applications: • GreenIT, as the integrator, standardizes types and

interpretation of the collected data, • The manufacturers of the devices receive the pool

of protocols by means of which they send data to the cloud,phot. Shutterstock

46

• On the other hand, application designers receive API, thanks to which their clients, after the autho-risation, can get data from their devices.

ThE wAyS And mEAnS of uSinG GREEn Cloud

GreenCloud can be used in almost every area of hu-man life. Hence, it may comprise the foundation for the functions of a usefull appendage in such spheres as Logistics, Business, Economics, Medicine, Securi-ty, Trade and Industry what makes this technology all--embracing and practical. What is even more supri-sing, is that it will easily fit ordinary people, who may use it in a daily life. For instance, with the program GreenPay, which may also be found in the “cloud”, a person can arrange its own bill payment system (inc-luding electricity bills), segregate important documenta-tion, thus, facilitating routine paperwork.

mAnAGinG BuSinESS

Indeed, the system is enriched with a wide range of pro-grams that would, in turn, open great opportunities for entrepreneurs. The GreenCloud will offer them fast, effi-cient and secure transfer of data within the enterprise as well as between the different entities. Through the CRM

program, integrated into the cloud, individuals would be able to manage business faster, by adjusting resources to meet fluctuations and unpredictable business demands. An application can ensure a control over every informa-tional resource of the company as well as serve a true mainstay of support in managing staff and workflows.

Green Cloud provides services for management system of Green CRM. It is an intuitive and easy in use manager for managing relations with the client, designed for both large as well as small businesses. It enables conducting the full process of selling, services and supports inte-raction with clients in an organized manner. The func-tionality of division of labor among the users saves time related to information exchange and the possibility to file all necessary things in one place for general improvement of results of the results of team’s activities.

The time management in Green CRM is performed with the use of tasks allocation, planning and registering the event. It is a system of sharing several modules for ma-naging those units, the most important of which are the events and the calendar. The user who uses the authori-zation mechanism can define group of people interested in a given task or event. Therefore, only limited number of people have an access to the information and can add

phot. Shutterstock


the activities, while commenting them. They can also connect it with other objects.

They system of Green CRM operations: � Managing customer relations:

• Segregation of information, files and notes con-nected with the client,

• Combination of data from all Green Office appli-cations,

� Managing the time of work and support of data exchange in the company:• Allocating tasks and planning the events,• Workflow documentation,

� Management of the selling process: � Selling opportunities, � The history of presented offers and orders.

EnERGy SECToR

What is more, a GreenCloud is gradually becoming a very indespensible tool in the energy sector. The re-ason for this is the development of Smart Grid, an in-telligent power network, able to efficiently integrate the performance of selected energy systems (power gene-rators, plants, factories) with cities, offices and homes. Designed to eliminate the shortage of energy resources, it not just ensures the stability of the electricity sup-ply chain, but also secures a fast distribution of ener-gy resources. Currently, this versatile program is able to solve a majority of energy problems that have affected

modern society, such as low efficiency of energy produc-tion, its problematic distribution and transferring.

In addition to that, with the help of the Smart Metering – an intelligent measurement system, people can measure the usage of energy resources and get even more infor-mation about any malfunctions in the system. They will be able to do it via the Internet, using their own electrici-ty meter connected to Smart Grid Network. What distin-guishes this Green program from already existing ones is that Smart Metering contains its own telecommunication infrastructure, a central database and what is more, a ma-nagement center, which all together make it convenient in usage. Thus, it registers the entire history on the use of energy resources, which later on can be analyzed via different tools, so that people are able to see when and which instrument uses the greatest amount of energy, saving in this way, money and reducing the use of energy.

loGiSTiCS

For the sphere of logistics, the expert team of Smart IT Cluster has invented a truly unique technology that will help to avoid financial losses and definitely facilitate the transportation of goods. Green Logger - represents a prac-ticable device, which constitutes a modern solution to a multitude of obstacles, faced by people from the logistics sphere. Its functionality consists in the fact that it conducts the virtualization and recording of data from transport regi-sters. Despite the fact that the market of such tools already exists, most of them gather only limited data, remaining in offline regime. As opposed to that old and malfunctioning instruments, Green Logger records whole spectrum of data throughout the entire process of transportation. During the unloading process, the device sends that gathered data to the cloud; thus, providing it to users. It is inten-ded to inform about the details and conditions, in which goods and transport dwell, responding to any change in the position of the good, as a result, allowing to precisely determine the stage at which a good was damaged, or lost. Accordingly, it provides forwarders with a chance to find out the cause of the damage, identify a guilty side, ultima-tely prevent financial losses and assert their rights. Green Logger also registers such parameters as: temperature and pressure measurement of the commodity in the container, semi-trailers and warehouses; measurement of the level of humidity in the compartment; finally, indication of the pre-cise transport location, etc. Following that, the technology constitutes a huge plus, which allows individuals to quickly react to unforeseen difficulties, fix them and consequently, prevent great financial losses.

phot. Shutterstock

48

AuTomoTivE SECToR

As was previously mentioned, the applications and instru-ments of the GreenCloud can be used in almost every da-ily activity of people. It certainly applies to the safety of people’s property and maintenance of their comfort and welfare. Following that, the developers from SmartIT Clu-ster have designed a truly indispensible tool that can re-lieve individuals and modern society from unnecessary daily worries. AST (Automatic System of Telemetry, Green Box – „Back Box”) is installed in vehicles; has wide range of purposes and its functionality relies on the complicated in-ternal mechanism and number of sensors. Interconnected with a variety of filtration, it gives the possibility to success-fully monitor and assess the functioning of the vehicle. AST comprises of:

� Green Box, which records the accidents, � The display installed in the ceiling lining, which displays

communications concerning the condition of the car, malfunctions of the engine, failures etc.,

� OBD2 module – connecting AST with the on-board computer,

� Pager – which informs the user about possible dangero-us occurrences such as, for example, breaking the win-dow, theft attempt etc.

If a person gets into a car accident, AST would be able to automatically determine the exact location of the accident, would send information to the cloud, so that consultants

would be able to call the ambulance to the accident spot. In addition to aforementioned, the tool possess the function of “the driver alert”, designed to prevent car burglary, by notifying the police about possible theft. It can serve the driver as a traveling navigator, which warns him of possi-ble traffic jams, offering better way to the final destination. Moreover, AST informs the owner of the vehicle, via text messages on the display, about the technical conditions of the vehicle, fuel components and terms of service inspec-tions. As a part of the concierge service, the Monitoring Centre may offer its client a car substitute, or organization of accommodation, in case if the client’s car got broken. Moreover, users may check or monitor all data on car usa-ge, which is available in their cloud. To sum up, with the help of AST, people will no longer have to worry about any po-ssible malfunction of the car, and even if it occurs, they will be able to quickly and easily react and solve the problem without wasting time.

TElEmEdiCinE

One cannot ignore the fact that the evolution of cloud computing has also positively affected the development of the medicine. Absolutely new, but already popular idea - “telemedicine”- has been widely used all over the globe. This term refers to: information technology, telecommuni-cation and medicine. The idea of the invention is based on the real-time data availability concerning patient’s medical condition, what allows doctors from different parts of the

phot. Shutterstock


world to properly identify the health problems of “telepa-tients” and decide on their appropriate treatments. In this respect, the technology of the GreenCloud may provide its clients with a wide range of useful and irreplaceable services. The applications, installed in the cloud, may also be adapted for a variety of services, which can help in the conduction of telediagnostics as well as gathering of telemedical data.

GREEn id mulTiSySTEm

The system of cloud computing – Green Cloud – allows to manage multisystems, which refer to combining loyalty sys-tems as well as payment ones. Currently, Green Cloud ma-nages Green ID multisystems designed by the Smart IT Clu-ster. Green ID multisystem is unique on the European scale, as it stands out from the other systems due to its complexi-ty. Green ID, apart from sharing loyalty programs and their proper configuration depending on the needs, also enables integration of all bank and credit accounts as well as paying by one Green ID payment card – Smart Pay. What is more, it can be used for many more purposes. It can be used as a city, discount and loyalty card, etc.:

� Green ID virtual city card � Access to loyalty system � Map of the partners � Search engine for offers and discounts � Available also for external applications � Encrypted communication channel for all GreenTeam ap-

plications � Unified identification of the devices and the user in the

cloud

It is obvious that with current pace of life, such form of se-rvices is virtually necessary. The market of mobile payment services as well as payment cards is very wide and increases all the time. In the last year, an increase of 25% has been observed, and in the last two years - 48%. According to the data from banks, in the third quarter of 2015, 861.7 million transactions have been performed with the use of payment cards (cash and cashless) and in comparison to the previous quarter there has been an increase of 35.7 million, what ac-counts for 4.3% increase. While analyzing this data, we can conclude that the Green ID system is the answer to incre-asingly growing number of transactions and the number of cards. Thanks to the use of cloud computing for managing Green ID multisystem, the user is exempt from wide range of services also has the safe guarantee.

whERE doES ThE SuCCESS ComE fRom?

The success of GreenCloud is based on its accessibility to all users and possibility to adapt it to perform various ta-sks. Managing data in the cloud system allows every busi-nessperson, developer, or incubator to save time, financial resources and more importantly, simplify the system of controlling (managing) activities. The correct organization and an appropriate streamline of things in business - is what makes GreenCloud stay one step ahead.

phot. Shutterstock

50

Energy self-sufficiency of Poland - the way of development

Analysing the energy conditions of Poland, the scope of country’s resources and capabilities leads one to the conclusion that the country can be fully self-sufficient. Indeed, all the energy sources, so far known to humanity, are available here. The-re are immense coalfields and brown coal deposits in Poland, as well as inspiring amount of oil and natural gas. Some of these resources are already in use, but many of them are still undiscovered.

What is important to know about Poland, is that its geogra-phical surface area has appropriate level of insolation and breeziness for wind and solar energy. Another not insigni-ficant issue is the presence of geothermal deposits, which give certain possibilities to produce thermal energy and electricity in an efficient and inexpensive way. Considering that, there are also many mountainous areas in Poland for the development of hydro-power industry.

Despite of the fact that Poland possesses all significant natural resources, the demand of population is constantly growing. According to the data prepared by Agency of the Energy Market – ARE SA and deputed by Department of Economy, the demand for electricity in Poland will be increasing and in 2030 will probably reach the point of 217,4 TWh. Compared with the last few years, a significant growth can be noticed, which means that, which means that Poland has to invest in new production capacity. The increase of demand for energy is – of course – proportio-nate both to the economical growth and the birth-rate. The buoyant amount of business entities and internal market, including almost 38 million of inhabitants, clearly depict the scale of the predicted growth in energy demand. Here comes the need of modernization of the energy sector in Poland, as to fully use the available potential. There have been several activities taken as far, starting with the development of the gas output its storage, enlargement and development of present industrial networks, ending with the investments into the sector of Renewable Energy Resources - OZE.

nATuRAl GAS – imPoRT And SToRAGE

According to the Department of Economy, a demand for the natural gas in Poland is reaching 14.5 billion of cubic

metres yearly. Most of it is usually acquired from other countries – about 121 TWh; only 44.3 TWh of natural gas comes from Polish resources and is rather an addition to the imported energy supplies. Polish internal gas resources represent about 27% of the whole Polish gas supply.

The biggest Polish producer and importer of gas is Polish Oil and Gas Company – PGNiG Capital Group. In Poland natural gas is taken from the fields located mostly in the southern and western part of the country (Podkarpacie and western Wielkopolska). Moreover, there are also significant possibilities to produce some shale gas in Poland. Polish Geological Institute estimates the size of Polish resources – with the highest probability – between 346 – 768 billion m3 of gas.

The general import of gas from other countries in 2014 included both import from the East as well as supplies among the community. The biggest part of our import comes from Eastern Europe – this process is based on the long-lasting contract between PGNiG S.A. and Gazprom Eksport. Following this, since the signment of the agre-ement between the two companies in 1996, Poland has already bought around 90.7 TWh of gas from Russia, which is equal to 75% of the whole import of this raw material to the territory of country. Following that, one can draw the conclusion that thanks to unstoppable progress of Poland, by 2022 it can become fully self-sufficient and independent from Russian gas transfer.1

In 2014 Storage System Operator (OSM) was realizing its operating functions with the use of already existing and new storage capabilities, which could be considered as a result of building some new storage installations (Kosakowo) and extension of the present ones (PMG Wierzchowice

Krzysztof Kuberski


phot. Shutterstock

52

and PMG Strachocina) and KPMG Mogilno, PMG Husów, PMG Swarzów and PMG Brzeźnica. The active capacity of all storage facilities reached 2 524.09 million m3 in 2014.

In 2014 the whole expenditure of natural gas in Poland reached 15 436.22 million m3. Following the forecasts, in the forthcoming years shares of gas in the national energy balance sheet should insignificantly increase.

Thanks to the investment into LNG terminal in Świnoujście, Poland can become one of the EU countries, which are the least dependent on gas supply. The terminal, designed for receiving liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Swinoujscie, is one of the most important Polish investments in energy business in the last few years; it is also considered by the government as the strategic one for Polish energy security. This investment allows receiving gas by sea from almost any place in the world.

The initial terminal’s ability of regasification will reach 5 billion m3, which is responsible for one-third of Polish demand for gas. There is a possibility to extend the power of terminal to 7.5 billion m3 yearly. Polish LNG and Tractebel Engineering company concluded an agreement, which target the elabora-tion of the feasibilities for the development of terminal. The terminal in Świnoujście will be the only this-type installation in Northern and East-Central Europe, what is more – one of the biggest ones in the whole Europe. Currently, there are 22 active LNG terminals in Europe.

EnERGy TRAnSfER – inTElliGEnT ElECTRiCiTy nETwoRkS

Poland – as well as the other European countries – has to face the dangers, which come as a result of energy resources’ shortage and low efficiency of its production, transfer, division and use. In a way, reality forces the market to create a need to introduce the new quality into electricity networks. Preparing intelligent systems of energy’s delivery is widely-knowned as “smart grids”. In general, this term means “supplying electri-city – or electricity services – to the customers with use of IT means, which allow reducing the costs and enlarging effi-ciency, as well as integrating scattered resources of energy, also renewable one.”

Another definition says: Smart grid - is an intelligent network or electricity network; there is wide communication between the participants of the energy market which leads to supply electrical services, combined with shortening the costs and increasing efficiency as well as integrating dispersed resources of energy, including resources of renewable energy.

Satisfying all of these demands is connected with moderni-sation of present electrical network and optimisation of its elements. Tweaking the standards has been lasting for five years; for example – European Commission has empanelled a special team, which works are destined for 2010-2020.

Nevertheless, intelligent electrical networks, which provide communication between all the members of the market, requ-ire also Intelligent Measurement Systems (Smart Metering – SM) – electronic system which measures energy use, pro-viding users with even more information than a conventional counter. SM can also send and receive precise data with use of electronic connectedness. These systems include intelligent counters of electrical energy used by customers, telecommu-nication infrastructure, central base of data and managing system. Smart Metering systems form a part of intelligent electrical network and should not be considered separately.

Intelligent Measurement Systems enable real-time two-dimen-sional communication of information system with electronic counters of electrical energy. What is more, they are able to automate the procedure of cost allocation, by receiving the measuring data through its processing and aggregation. In order to achieve the best possible quality of information flow, the technological process should be based on Cloud compu-ting system. However, it is worth mentioning that not all cloud computing systems are sufficiently technologically advanced to be able to cope with such a complicated mechanism - the system of energy transfer through smart electric power phot. www.windpl.eu


grids. The perfect example of such solution is the innovative cloud computing – Green Cloud, which makes it possible to directly and safely transfer the information from measuring devices to consumers as well as to those who control energy transfer process.

There are many factors in favour of developing intelligent electrical networks. It secures people’s energy safety by eli-minating certain interruptions in providing energy services and maximising efficiency of energy fluctuation from the source of its production to the customer. Secondly, it al-lows minimising the costs of electrical services thanks to the optimal and constant integration of environmentally frien-dly, local energy resources. Moreover, it guarantees diversity and individuality among the quality levels of received ener-gy. What is more, as a result of development comes func-tionality of services given by providers, which is also being widened on the customers’ behalf, i.e. intelligent metering and invoicing (e.g. two-dimensional counters, variability of used energy’s price in exact time), management of energy and monitoring the conditions of its delivery.

It is worth saying that extending intelligent electrical systems comes in favour of developing Renewable Energy Resources. Thanks to intelligent electrical networks dispersed renewa-ble resources of limited availability of power and energy can be integrated. Nevertheless, the most important factor that settles the value of investment in intelligent electrical network systems is the necessity of overhauling the present supply networks. European aims in the field of protecting the environment cannot be reached without certain changes of electrical grids. The urgency of investing in renewable raw materials, dispersed generation and electric vehicles requires appropriate infrastructure, which will be able to integrate the producers’, consumers’ and entities’ realising both of this functions activities. It should also appease constantly gro-wing demand for electric energy. That is why implementing innovations and developing already existing ones is such an important challenge for Poland and Europe in the following years.

REnEwABlE EnERGy RESouRCES

Renewable Energy Resources (RER), which will surely gain the European market in the incoming years, keep on develo-ping dynamically. According to the data on Poland’s energy policy, share of RER in the final use of energy is thought to reach the point of 15.5 percentage points in 2020, which means: for electrical energy the level of use will grow up to 19.3%, heat and refrigeration engineering – 17% and transport fuels 10.2%.

The variety and – on the contrary to the conventional methods – inexhaustibility testify to the value of this form of producing energy. Renewable energy can be reached from all of the natural resources, from the energy of sun, wind, water and earth. The leading way of producing energy from the rene-wable resources in Poland is the use of wind power. Wind power forms recently about 57.6% of all renewable energy resources. It reached the first place among all RER techno-logies already in 2009. The majority of wind farms is set in north-western Poland. Zachodniopomorskie Voivodeship is leading in this ranking and is followed by Wielkopolskie and Pomorskie Voivodeships.

According to the data, published by Energy Regulatory Office, at the end of September 2012, wind farms were producing concomitantly 2 496.748 MW of energy, and by the end of 2015 this mark has reached to 5000MW, which indicates about 13% of the whole electrical system in Poland; wind power reached 6.21% of the whole production of electrical energy – and this level is constantly rising. This fact arises from appropriate climate conditions; the level of breeziness is regular and beneficial in the whole country, which aids popularisation of RER and attracting certain investments into this form of energy generation.

The level of insolation in Poland, as well as breeziness, also seems to be relatively beneficial. As a result of analysing the insolation map of Poland and comparing it with other

phot. Shutterstock

54

European countries, one can come to the conclusion that Poland, compared with other countries of central and nor-thern Europe, has the highest coefficients. Lower quantity of energy is observed even in Germany, Great Britain and northern countries.

What is important – the level of insolation in Poland is even and reaches approximately 1000 kW/m2 yearly. The stati-stics of solar radiation seem to be positive, about 80% of the general insolation (per annum) is observed in 6-7 months of spring and summer season. As a result, receiving energy from solar radiation, meaning from the photovoltaic farms, is very enduring and efficient. That is why for the last few years, there has been a significant growth in the general amount of investments in photovoltaic energy and technological deve-lopment of its practical use in Poland.

Currently, there are 653 active photovoltaic farms in Poland, mostly micro-installations. The greatest development of pho-tovoltaic, solar and industrial energy took place in 2014-2015 – at this time, the number of emerging photovoltaic farms reached a spectacular increase and their possible power also achieved an important growth. 2016 is bound to bring some significant changes in this sector, as other investments are about to start.

Investors, as well as local governments, noticed the potential in geothermal energy, because of its ecological, economical and touristic benefits. Geothermal energy does not damage the landscape; neither pollu-tes the air nor the ground and water. The

resources of geothermal water are actually endless and self-sufficient, in comparison

to photovoltaic and wind power. Apart from that, the intake of geothermal water can become a touristic – holiday attrac-

tion, just like geothermal pools in Uniejów.

The ways of generating and storing water power consist in pumped-storage power stations. The power of such station depends on the size of settlers and differences between their water levels. These bodies of water can be both natural and artificial. The ability of pumped-storage power stations to warehouse energy ranges between 65-85%. The huge advan-tage of this type of generators is the speed of launching – its full power can be reached even in a few minutes. The costs of building such a power station are quite high in a way, but with appropriate difference of energy prices between the highest

and the lowest demand for it, this investment is bound to be profitable. What is also worth considering is connection between hydropower industry with other types of RER, such as wind and solar power.

Using such technologies as Vertical Wind Turbines GVT, described in the article “Ultramodern vertical wind turbines”, e.g. near pumped-storage power station in Żarnowiec, can significantly raise the efficiency. Such a source of natural energy, thanks to the modular construction and construction and unlimited type of subsoil can generate up to 200 MW for the pumped-storage power station and about 200 MW of constant power for the localisations close to the generator. This will probably create stable and safe system of providing energy to local inhabitants and solve certain energy problems of the region. Analogical solutions should be implemented also in remaining five pumped-storage power stations in Poland, as to increase the efficiency of generating energy and its storage. Such kind of activity – combined with relatively low investment’s costs – can significantly raise efficiency and make certain regions energy-secured.

EnERGy SElf-SuffiCiEnCy - ThE CominG yEARS PRoSPECT?

As a conclusion of the arguments presented above, appropriate use of Poland’s potential and properly planned, implemented RER projects can be a great source of energy, making already existing generators safer. Poland is not energy self-sufficient yet, however - with use of the modern RER innovations, such as GVT, Poland is bound to become self-sufficient, as one of the very few in the whole Europe.

The development of the energy security system in Poland based on RER, combined with electrical intelligent networks which use innovative Green Cloud computing system, will surely reduce the level of carbon dioxide emission and to guarantee energy stability of Poland. Solar, wind and geother-mal power can help people to face the energy challenges that are already set. Last changes in this sector, significant growth of interest and potential, as well as the recent situation, prove it explicitly.

References:

1. President’s of Energy Regulatory Office 2015 Internal Report. 2. tvn24bis.pl.

Contact details [email protected] www.egta.eu

■ Operational wind speed ranging from 1.5 m/s to as much as 55 m/s,

■ Operation independent of wind direction which allows for maximum efficiency,

■ Substantial reduction of noise and vibrations, ■ No risk for birds and bats, ■ Resistance to strong winds, ■ Easy transport of modules and simple moun-

ting system ■ Continuity of operation of the turbine thanks

to the energy storage system.

The vertical wind turbines Green Vertical Turbine Sp. z o.o. were designed in several variants.

Characteristics of the vertical wind turbines

Design variants: ■ land (steel), ■ roof (aluminium), ■ off-shore

(aluminium), ■ marine (aluminium).

Technological variants:

■ steel, ■ aluminium.

GB - 047

EGTAwww.egta.euVertical GVT

wind turbines

Vertical GVT wind turbines – innovative, highly effective technology enabling elastic power configuration of built

power plants.

Contact details [email protected] www.egta.eu55

56

Eu investments in Poland – a positive development momentumAnna Dąbrowska, The Foundation Center for Analyses in Transport and Infrastructure

The European Union is a community of 27 Member States and 493 million citizens. The variety of economies, cultures and institutional frameworks is both the strenght and the weakness of the EU. On the one hand, EU enlargement and CEE countries accession opened new markets, created demand and built favourable institutional framework for “old” EU members market expansion, which contributed to development of Western Europe economies. On the other hand, economic and social disparities among EU countries resulted in differing pace of their development, thus strengthening the phenome-non of “differentiated” Europe, disturbing the stability of European economy. To transform this fragmen-ted community of EU member countries into a sustainable, common market, the EU Cohesion Policy1 has been established and implemented through: the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF), also known as the Structural Funds, and the Cohesion Fund. Using these financial mechanisms, the European Union invests in thousands of projects across all Europe’s regions to achieve economic and social cohesion and reduce disparities between the Member States and the regions. Cohesion Policy represents the single largest source of financial support at EU level for investment in economic growth and creation of new workplaces, designed to enable all regions to compete effectively within internal market.

phot. Fotolia


PolAnd And CEE CounTRiES – EuRoPEAn GRowTh EnGinES

However, effectiveness of the Cohesion Policy implementa-tion also varies among its beneficiaries – in some cases the positive impact is clearly visible, while in other cases ineffective national strategies and policies undermined the results of Co-hesion Policy implementation. The distance to “the EU core” of these countries has dramatically increased. As a result, in the last decade, the roles of countries and regions in Europe have significantly changed. It is especially visible in Poland, which position in the European patchwork has been constantly evo-lving. Since 2004, Poland has transformed from the „poor co-usin” to the development „engine” of European economy, that is not just catching up with the European median2, but also shows significant potential for further dynamic growth.

Among CEE countries, only Poland and Slovakia have reached the GDP growth rate of 49% above the 2004 level in 2013. They were followed by Lithuania (38%), Romania (37%) and Bulgaria (34%). At the same time, since the emergence of the global economic crisis in 2008, southern parts of Europe star-ted to follow the deepening recession path, tripling the unem-ployment rates and dramatically increasing national debt in 7 years.

Good years for the economies of CEE countries, to a larger extent, attributed to their EU membership. As indicated in European Policy Centre analyses3, lower business risk, higher attractiveness for investors and financial credibility, reduced barriers in the flow of people, cargo and capital, increasing in-vestments and export have resulted in the catch-up of GDP dynamics. Also, the inflow of EU funds for public investments and entrepreneurship support catalysed the growth potential and increased the effectiveness of structural, political, institu-tional and economic changes and reforms.

Eu fundS 2004 – 2013: fRom infRASTRuCTuRE To innovATion

In Poland, in 2004–2007, nearly 85,000 projects worth EUR 22.5 billion were implemented. A priority was given to infra-structure development with special focus on transport sector modernisation. By the end of 2007, 3,700 km of roads and over 200 km of motorways were built or modernised, 350 km of railway tracks were upgraded, over 100 sewage treat-ment plants were put into operation and 49 programmes re-lated to separate collection, storage or recycling of waste and management of municipal waste were implemented. Another important area to which EU funds contribute and which has positively influenced to Polish economy, was business and in-novation support. Over 15,000 projects were implemented in this area. Namely, 78 research or specialist laboratories were modernised and developed, 19 technology incubators were established. Support was also provided to 27 business parks and 17 research and technology parks. Research and specialist laboratories have provided services to 1,120 enterprises. The entities, which received support, introduced 17 new products or technologies.

However, between years 2007 and 2013, Poland started even more intensive investment programme, with dedicated EU budget of EUR 67.19 billion, which was the biggest amount received by any CEE country. Although the vast majority of EU funds were still invested in infrastructure development, the portion for business and innovation support increased and again resulted in creation of more than 43,000 jobs and over 600 projects in the area of R&D.

finAnCiAl fRAmEwoRk 2014 -2020 - A uniquE GRowTh oPPoRTuniTy

The focus on innovation and entrepreneurship continues in

Chart 1: Cumulated chain linked GdP volumes in CEE region in 2004-2013 (2003=100%)

Source: Eurostat, GDP and main components

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

9%

HU UE-27 SI UE-9 CZ EE LV BG RO LT PL SK

11%14%

27% 28%

33% 33% 34%37% 38%

49% 49%

Innovation, enterpreneurship,employment and ICT development

Low-carbon economy, climate change adaptation and enviroment protection

Sustainable transport and infrastructure

Other

9.1 billion EUR

23 billion EUR

18.9 billion EUR

31.5 billion EUR

58

References:

1. European Cohesion Policy is at the centre of the effort to im-prove the competitive position of the Union as a whole, and its weakest regions in particular, European Commission, 2014.

2. Challenge Europe, Challenges and new beginnings: Priorities for the EU’s new leadership, European Policy Centre, 2014.

3. Summary of the Partnership Agreement for Poland, 2014-2020, European Commission, 2014.

4. Cohesion Policy 2014-2020, Momentumbuilds, Panorama in-foregio, 2013.

Chart 2: Breakdown of Eu funds allocation for Poland for 2014-2020

Source: Summary of the Partnership Agreement for Poland, 2014-2020,

European Commission, 2014

the current budgetary period 2014 – 2020, for which Poland has been allocated EUR 82.5 billion. This time, the share for business and innovation support increased to almost 40% of total allocation, with the main focus on scientific research and commercialisation, strengthening the cooperation between R&D and enterprise sector and development of high quali-ty human capital. Within the area of Research & Innovation sector (allocation of EUR 10 billion), businesses can apply for development and implementation of new products, processes and services, including product formulas development, opti-misation of product characteristics, development of new pro-duction methods, designing new machinery for manufacturing processes and improving production lines.

The need for meeting European goals in a low-emission econo-my resulted in strong focus on renewable energy and environ-mental protection investments. About EUR 9.2 billion is alloca-ted to implement this kind of projects. Companies are eligible for the co-financing of investment projects promoting clean energy, energy efficiency and environmental actions, both at the energy production stages and in manufacturing processes. The support is addressed to projects involving the efficient use of resources, creating an energy-efficient economy, reducing emissions and promoting renewable energy sources.

The fundamental role of SME development and prosperity for economic growth stands as a base for specific support for this type of businesses. Special programmes were designed to fa-cilitate the implementation of innovative technologies by such entities, encourage cooperation between business and scien-ce and implement environmental solutions, with the budget of about EUR 9.4 billion.

PolAnd’S ShifT To innovATion

All these investments are supposed to lead to a significant change in Poland’s economy – as stated in Partnership

Agreement for Poland, the crucial objective in this financial framework is the shift from imitation-based to an innova-tion-based development and to substantially lever business R&D expenditure, which implies commercializing indigenous innovative ideas and requires closer cooperation between enterprises and researchers. This shift is supposed to mate-rialise in measurable increase of R&I expenditure in relation to GDP from 0.9% to 1.7%, increasing private R&I spending from 0.3% to 0.8% of GDP.

European regions need to move upwards on the innovation ladder. Member States that invest a lot in innovation fare better than tho-se that could make it better. – stated Jose Manuel Barroso, for-mer European Commission President. But the success of the pro-innovation strategies in Poland and other CEE countries is based not only on the amount of money invested in R&D programmes, but also on member countries’ capacity to de-velop structures, institutions and cooperative networks sup-porting innovation and technology transfer. Cooperation and sharing experience is a key in stimulating a dynamic, forward--looking innovation-based development process and has to be the baseline for any investments and pro-innovative activities. Therefore, there is a need to develop and strengthen the role of clusters and technology brokers, which create supportive environment for sharing ideas and charting new and innova-tive ways of harnessing European investment. Also the EU has an important role to play in incentivising and supporting such organisations and partnerships, both within and outside the EU. Thousands of EU projects have shown the benefits for international cooperation and knowledge transfer. This is also true for Poland and CEE countries, where several such initiatives have emerged. Only few of them show strong in-ternational focus and prospects to have a significant impact on European market, but this is the area for further develop-ment and utilisation of EU funds for 2014 - 2020. One of the good examples is European Green Technology Alliance (www.egta.eu) and its European Technology Transfer Platform. This international network provides access to knowledge, experts and technologies and creates business and cooperative envi-ronment which supports national and EU efforts to increase innovativeness of the whole European continent.


Emirates & Europe Business Development Clustera unique cooperation schemeKrzysztof Panek

For several years, Poland has been a country with the strongest economy in Europe, characterized by a stable GDP growth and political situation. Consequently, it has recently started to be perceived as a gate for business and investment to Europe which attracts investors and traders from all over the world.

phot. Shutterstock phot. Shutterstock

phot. Shutterstock

60

In the last several years, investment and trade between Poland and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been systematically increasing. Poland offers the United Arab Emirates mostly electronic technologies. However, agricul-tural technology and products, biotechnology, renewable energy sources and broadly defined modern technologies are the most prospective sectors, which can contribute to strengthening of economic ties between these two coun-tries. There are also other mutually attractive areas for co-operation which include environment technology, transport equipment, and energy. Trade in IT applications may also be very interesting for both partners. Other opportunities include, apart from oil and gas industry, chemical industry, automotive energy, industrial and residential construction and food processing.

UAE is the second largest trade partner for Poland among Arab League countries after Saudi Arabia. In the 2011 - 2012 period, the Polish export to UAE increased from USD 342 million to USD 440 million, the total trade value increased from USD 458 million to USD 542 million. The total value of Poland’s direct investments in UAE in 2012 was about USD 150 million. In 2013 and 2014, further growth was recorded. In 2014, as shown by the Poland’s Central Statistical office, its total exports to UAE amoun-ted to USD 1.1 billion, while total commercial exchange was more than USD 1.3 billion. It was about 50 percent higher than in 2013. In total, during the last five years, mu-tual trade between these countries has quadrupled. The forecasts for 2020 are even more encouraging.

Trade and investment between the UAE and Poland are expected to significantly increase in the years to come, since both partners have recently started a number of strategic cooperation initiatives. By and large, due to high dynamics of commercial exchange and growing economic potential, the United Arab Emirates and Poland are considered to be very promising trade partners for the coming years.

uniTEd ARAB EmiRATES AS A REliABlE BuSinESS PARTnER

The United Arab Emirates is in the Middle East, bordering the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Gulf, between Oman and Saudi Arabia. The UAE has an open economy with a high per capita income and a sizeable annual trade surplus. Abu Dhabi and Dubai are major UAE financial centers.

Business environmentAs indicated by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and the World Bank analytical reports1, successful efforts at economic

diversification in trade, logistics, banking, tourism, real estate and manufacturing have reduced the portion of GDP based on oil and gas output to 25%. Since the discovery of oil in the UAE more than 31 years ago, this country has undergone a profound transformation from an impoverished region of small desert principalities to a modern state with a high stan-dard of living. The government has increased spending on job creation and infrastructure expansion and is opening up utilities to greater private sector involvement.

PWC and the World Bank indicate that, the UAE has one of the most liberal trade regimes in the Gulf and attracts strong capital flows from across the region. In common with most Gulf states, there is a high number of expatriate wor-kers at all levels of the economy. The UAE is progressively diversifying its economy, minimizing vulnerability to oil price movements. The UAE is very well connected to the rest of the world, mainly due to Ethihad, the UAE’s national carrier and Emirates, Dubai’s airline, rapidly expanding their fleet networks.

What is more interesting, the UAE is the 30th largest eco-nomy in the world and No.2 in the Middle East and North Africa. The UAE ranks 33rd out of 183 countries for the overall Ease of Doing Business. The absence of income tax compensates for the regulated investment environment. The UAE’s substantial hydrocarbons resource revenues means government has no pressing need to raise income via direct taxes. There are also several benefits to corporates and their employees in relation to taxation. The UAE is located favo-urably in terms of transport and logistics, providing excellent background for production and intercontinental transport of goods, what is already appreciated by logistics companies.

key uAE markets and trade The major trading partners of the UAE include the Europe-an Union, India, Japan, China, South Korea, United States of America, Thailand, Singapore and Oman.

Export commodities include crude oil (45%), natural gas, re--exports and fish to Japan (17.1%), India (13.6%), South Ko-rea (6.1%), and Thailand (5.1%). Import commodities inclu-de machinery and transport equipment, chemicals and food from India (17.5%), China (14%), United States of America (7.7%), Germany (5.6%) and Japan (4.8%).

The existence of free trade zones with 100% ownership, zero taxes, excellent infrastructure, a relatively stable outlo-ok on country risks, and a very convenient geographical lo-cation almost midway between east and west are attractive aspects for foreign investments. Around 80% of Fortune


500 companies (including all of the top 10) have established a presence in the UAE according to The Economist, and the UAE’s 25 plus free zones are now host numerous multina-tional and regional companies – including over 6,400 com-panies from over 120 different countries located in Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone.

The labor workforce is 4.1 million and expatriates account for about 85% of the workforce with over 150 nationalities working and living harmoniously in a safe, almost entirely crime-free environment. The UAE attracts a highly skilled workforce, which is absorbed by the growing number of in-ternational companies, professional service firms and finan-cial institutions. Expatriates enjoy tax-free salaries, schools accredited to international standards, a high standard of health care and excellent recreational facilities – including a number of championship golf courses.

Besides of that, the UAE’s investment climate is becoming more favourable towards foreign direct investors: The fe-deral government, led by Abu Dhabi, has made significant headway in the past five years in increasing the role of the private sector. A number of incentives for foreign investors have been recently introduced.

initiatives for cooperation. The abovestated indicates that, the United Arab Emirates has been transformed from manufacturer of fuels to huge business and financial terminal. European entrepreneurs, in-cluding Polish companies, search for new, prospective trade areas. Investors, who notice favourable economic situation, find UAE as a place where unique business opportunities can be found.

The Polish government has already started to enhan-ce multifaceted cooperation with UAE by signing mutual agreements, from which one of the most important is the agreement signed in June 2015 between Bronisław Komo-rowski, the President of Poland, and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Honorable Emir of Dubai. Agreements concluded between Poland and the United Arab Emirates include, among others, the agreement of cooperation on tourism, the memorandum of cooperation on innovation and small and medium-sized enterprises, the memorandum of cooperation on higher education and science research, the memorandum of cooperation betwe-en Sharjah University and Medical University in Lublin, and the letter of intent on cooperation in the area of agriculture and food safety. All of them aim to remove procedural and business obstacles appearing in a way to free trade and business as well as free movement. Technological develop-ment and education are, however, equally important.

CluSTERS – An oPTion foR PRofiTABlE CooPERA-Tion

If cooperation between these two countries always runs like a clockwork, why not make it even better? Due to the highest economic growth in the region, Poland is now re-cognised as a country with strong and stable economy. It became an interesting alternative for the whole business world, which was also observed by investors from the UAE. The quality of economic contacts between the countries is not just theoretical, but corresponds to a real situation. Strengthening of economic bonds should be, therefore, in the interest of both parties and the success depends on cooperation. Business and political activities are not the

phot. Shutterstock

62

only factors that stand behind proper market functioning in Poland and UAE.

Activities which combine almost all authority levels, busi-ness industries and the world of science turned out to be a recipe for success - and here comes the idea of cluste-ring. It allows for systematising and coordinating of many activities. As business practice often proves, the way of combining entities enables them to make a breakthrough in a given industry. Clusters consist of enterprises opera-ting in the same or similar industries, which do not compe-te with each other and are not tied with any commitments. They cooperate in terms of commonly selected areas on a voluntary basis, which allows them to reduce costs, increase production effectiveness and gain access to the market of qualified specialists, as well as to exchange competencies and resources in order to implement mutual undertakings.

Emirates & Europe Business development Cluster (www.eebd.eu).

To cater for the above challenges, Emirates & Europe Busi-ness Development Cluster (hereinafter: EEBDC) was created. It is an initiative of the Polish private sector, supported by government. The goals and objectives for this initiative have already been discussed with the UAE officials and entrepre-neurs, raising genuine business interests. The main objective of EEBDC is to integrate and improve communication be-tween UAE and European business environment, and among a Cluster’s members.

How does the Cluster function? EEBDC is a technology bro-ker, which serves as development advisory body and specia-lises in connecting business partners. The Cluster is compri-ses of business representatives, local government authorities and agencies, universities, institutions, legal offices and con-sulting firms working together on various business facilita-tion initiatives. The Cluster is open to any entity interested in contributing to its activities and to be actively involved in economic relations between Poland and UAE. This form of cooperation insures effective addressing and responding to trade and investment opportunities in both countries, pro-viding an access to knowledge, mutual experiences, and the most recent market and financial-economic information, which constitute indespensable elements for the promotion of business ties, commercial exchanges, as well as legal, trade, scientific, technical and industry cooperation. This provides a significant competitive advantage to the Cluster members.

In the area of business facilitation major tasks of EEBDC are: support in identifying trade partners, help in establishing di-

rect contacts with European companies in UAE, attracting foreign capital, exchange and provision of information on economy and local markets. All these activities create trans-parent cooperation conditions for the Cluster’s members. The Cluster through its associates also provides comprehen-sive support in obtaining European Union grants.

The Cluster also promotes benefits of business development between UAE and Europe. This provides a basis for future expanding of the Cluster’s scope of activity. The Cluster con-ducts promotion of members’ businesses, organizes partici-pation in trade fairs in Europe and UAE, and represents mem-bers in trade and investment conferences and other related events.

Currently, the Emirates & Europe Business Development Cluster concentrates its activities on four subject areas:

1) Technology Transfer. In the current global economy and marketplace, technology is an important factor creating bu-siness competitive advantage. As the consumers’ needs and market competition are constantly growing, to stay compe-titive, the companies need to strive for the introduction of innovations, news solutions and technologies. The effective-ness of these activities is decisive for benefiting from global economic opportunities. Therefore the Cluster supports and promotes new technologies and innovation with special fo-cus on:

� Green Energy, � Recycling and waste management, � Sustainable transport, � Smart Cities, � Raw material management, � Medicine and pharmacy, � Environment protection technologies and innovative so-

lutions.

2) investment Projects. The Cluster facilitates and stimulates development of investment projects. Using its vast network of contacts and associates in the private and public sectors of the EU member states countries and Dubai, the Cluster supports relations between entrepreneurs and potential in-vestors from all over the world. It evaluates investment pro-spects, provides advices on their acceptance and financing schemes. These activities provide tangible benefits to the Cluster members helping them to select and implement high profit and low risk investments with significant growth po-tential.

3) Trade and Economic development. The Cluster also pro-motes mutual and bilateral initiatives contributing to expan-


References:

1. Doing Business in the UAE, Third edition 2013, Price-WaterhouseCoopers; Doing Business UAE 2016, World Bank. 2016. Doing Business 2016: Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency. Washington, DC: World Bank Group. DOI: 10.1596/978-1-4648-0667-4.

sion of trade and economic development activities. This in-volves identification and creation of new opportunities for beneficial exports and imports of goods, services. The Cluster is a platform for exchange of business experiences, partner matching and idea exchange. This provides opportunities for cluster members and their business partners to more ef-ficiently explore development options and impact regional economic development. The Cluster conducts various activi-ties in this area such as:

� Identifying and expanding international markets for local products, manufacturing, technology, and services,

� International promotion of multidisciplinary innovative solutions,

� Developing investments and other initiatives contributing to modernization of national and regional economies.

� Promoting industry and manufacturing potential, � Improving labor skills and competence, � Reducing unemployment, � Providing access to new goods and services, � Contributing to efficient usage of natural resources and

national production capacities.

4) Reducing Poverty and Social Exclusion. The Cluster car-ries out a variety of activities contributing to increasing stan-dards of life, economic and social satisfaction, and capacities, reducing social and economic exclusion, and intensifying eco-nomic development. This provides a basis for increased trade and investment, and the overall economic potential. This in-volves such initiatives as:

� Organization of temporary accommodation centers (pu-blic housing) for less privileged in Europe,

� Creating jobs at local markets for various types of labor, � Providing and distributing products. This, for example,

concerns distribution of mobile phones functioning as digital wallets. Individuals using these devices are able to

do shopping in various points of sale, maintain and mana-ge account funds and monitor their expenses and trans-actions. This system results in reducing transaction and account maintenance costs, and faster funds availability. Additionally, the devices will provide various options for better access to telemedicine services. Also, availability of many services based on localization system will be pro-vided.

Historical data and experiences, and projected growth of opportunities and demand for cooperative relations create a sound basis for developing various forms of cooperation be-tween UAE and Poland and other EU member states. EEBDC provides an effective form of cooperation, which creates a sound framework for developing long-term cooperative rela-tions among these partners. It provides a proven and effec-tive formula and instrument for trade and investment, and innovation promotion and development. EEBDC is an attrac-tive solution to increase beneficial relations for all coopera-ting partners in UAE, Poland and Europe. No matter what the future holds, by doing our best, we can shape it better (to our mutual benefits in the UAE, Poland, and EU).

EEBD is open for cooperation with new business and insti-tutional partners from UAE and Europe. Further information about EEBD activities and membership is available at www.eebd.eu.

phot. Shutterstock

64

Krzysztof Kuberski

Polandas a worth-investing and prospective region

Poland is a country with numerous investment assets and development perspectives. Factors which are in favour of investing in our country include geographical, climatic and economic issues such as government grants, EU funds, real estate tax exemption, special economic zones and scholarship pro-grammes. However, the most important advantage is human capital, which, being well-qualified and well-educated is the key to the investment success. For several years, Poland has also focused on the innovative economy development, energy independence and decarbonisation, which are all part of sustainable development and which require intensified and thoughtful investment strategies. That is why technology transfer, energy and automotive industry is so important.

phot. Shutterstock phot. Shutterstock

phot. Shutterstock


inCEnTivES foR invESTmEnT And non-finAnCiAl ACTiviTiES - whAT ARE ThE mAin mEAnS of SuP-PoRT foR invESToRS?

Support in the form of grantThis kind of support is based on a bilateral agreement be-tween the Ministry of Economy and a given investor who is interested in a chosen economy sector. The agreement is subject to precisely defined conditions. The grants are paid out in accordance with the progress in fulfillment of com-mitments.

The investment area is also important. It is due to the fact that support is provided for the sectors which are regarded as the crucial ones. These sectors, amongst others, include: automotive, electronics, aviation, R&D and modern services sectors.

Two main categories of the support for new investments programme can be differentiated, the first one is the cre-ation of new jobs, and the second one is implementation of a new investment. The investors, who create 250 jobs by investing at least PLN 2 million in the sector of innova-tive services, will receive financial support for creation of new jobs. The amount of subsidy is highly dependent on the number of new jobs and also the number of qualified workers with higher education, as well as from the com-plexity of the processes performed by a given company. It is worth investing in the sector of modern services in Po-land. Exemptions from taxes are also one of the reasons. The businessmen who create new jobs can be, partially or fully, exempt from the property tax. Partial or full exemption from the tax on motor vehicles is also possible.

Support of authorities.Poviat Labour Offices offer considerable support program-mes. Amongst other things, they consist in covering costs of training for apprentices and also financing new jobs. Ad-ditionally, financing of scholarship programmes or return of expenses on salaries and social insurance is also offered.

Broader range of cooperation.The Polish regional authorities attract investors by non-fi-nancial activities. A good example from the Mazovian region is the support for investors and for development of clusters provided by the Marshall Office. Competitiveness of econo-my largely depends on research and development and also innovation (R+D+I). Strong emphasis is placed on promoting development of companies which introduce innovative pro-ducts and services. Clusters, because of cooperation with their member companies, research institutions, business re-

lated institutions, non-governmental institutions and local authorities, are called a catalyst of innovative processes. Clu-ster structures are to a large extend responsible for growth of innovativeness and improvement of potential capability of knowledge transfer.

For example, the Mazovian clusters like Smart IT, Green Energy, Green Cars and Innovation Cluster – in coopera-tion with international partners formed the EGTA Platform for the purpose of technology transfer and development of electric automotive industry, renewable energy sources and IT sector. EGTA has a support of public administration bo-dies like the Ministry of Economy, Marshall Office or PARP (The Polish Agency for Enterprise Development). This shows wide prospects and possibilities for national and internatio-nal cooperation.

SECToRS woRTh invESTinG

In 2015, residential and agricultural lands were at the top of the investors’ wish list, whereas the interest in the latter is a result of wind and solar farms development. This, ho-wever, does not mean that other types of markets are far behind them. Poland is becoming attractive for new groups of investors coming from India, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

This is mainly due to the fact that Poland is one of the few countries in the European Union which, despite of the weak economic situation in Euro zone, countries re-corded economic growth in 2014 and in 2015 and as in-dicated in NBP report, GDP rate will grow by 3.4 % and 3.6 %. The situation has improved also thanks to high invest-ment activity among national enterprises and the growth of consumer spending. Interestingly, the tax wedge (the devia-tion from equilibrium price/quantity as a result of a taxation, which results in that the consumers paying more, and sup-pliers receiving less) in Poland still remains relatively low in comparison to countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Last year’s issue of the “European Attractiveness Survey” prepa-red by Ernst&Young also mentions Poland as a worth-inve-sting and prospective place in Central and Eastern Europe.

Furthermore, Poland is one of the most attractive markets for investing in real properties. It is due to several factors. Fir-stly, country is distinguished by dynamic economic growth. Moreover, Poland has a number of investment incentives, such as the access to European funds, which may attract po-tential investors. Poland is also the largest (among 28 Mem-ber States) beneficiary of EU funds. There are governmental programmes focused on providing favourable conditions for

66

entrepreneurship development and promoting foreign inve-stors as important partners in building modern economy.

Start in PolandPoland is currently shifting its direction towards the deve-lopment and support of innovative solutions and projects. Thanks to the launching of the governmental project “Start in Poland”, technological initiatives with high economic pro-spects would be supported. Experts predict that such an initiative, backed by the Polish government, would serve as a driving force for positive changes in the field of innovation, leading, at the same time, to the creation of a favorable envi-ronment for the development of new start-ups. Continuous promotion of modern technological inventions would contri-bute to the implementation of modern solutions in Poland in a short time. At present, the initiators of project announced the allocation of approximately PLN 3 billion, which will be designated, among others, for:

� development of appropriate ecosystem and flagship pro-gram, needed for the creation and advancement of start--ups;

� establishment of public institutions; � consolidation of R&D institutions; � support for the internationalization of start-ups .

The success of the governmental program is very important for Poland, as it would increase country’s economic compe-titiveness and stability and more importantly, would improve the quality of social life. Poland has invested in innovations for many years and has achieved many successes in this very field (e.g. the development of valuable solutions in energy sector). With no doubt, “Start in Poland” has the potential to become one of the most influential projects in Central and Eastern Europe.

Special Economic Zones (SEZ) provide opportunities for in-vesting on favourable conditions. Special Economic Zones are separate areas where investors are offered exemption from income tax in relation to the revenue gained in a given zone. In Poland, there are fourteen special economic zones.

In order to obtain the privilege of conducting activities in a special economic zone, a company has to take part in a tender organised by a company governing a given zone. A tender’s rules and criteria for evaluation of intentions con-cerning undertakings are specified separately for each zone.

In a special economic zone, entrepreneurs may benefit from tax exemptions for:

� costs of a new investment; � the number of new workplaces.

The support level depends on maximum aid intensities pre-dicted for the area, on which the investment takes place. For entrepreneurs who will select aid due to employment, eligible costs are two-year labour costs of newly employed employees. In case of entrepreneurs using aid due to the costs of a new investment – costs of new investment.

The regions vary in terms of aid intensities. In Lubelskie, Podkarpackie, Warmińsko-Mazurskie and Podlaskie voivod-ships the constitutes 50% in relation to underlying costs, in Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Lubuskie, Łódzkie, Małopolskie, Opolskie, Pomorskie, Świętokrzyskie, Zachodniopomorskie voivodships and in subregions of Mazowieckie, Ciechanow-sko-Płockie, Ostrołęcko-Siedleckie, Radomskie and War-szawskie voivodeships it is 35%, in Dolnośląskie, Wielkopol-skie and Śląskie voivodships it is 25%, in Western Warsaw’s subregions – 20%, in Warsaw – 15% (until 31 December 2017) and 10% (since January 2018).

At the beginning of 2015, there were 2056 permits gran-ted for conducting business in all 14 special zones and in 2014, 436 permissions were issued, which accounted for 21% of a total number of permits. They also show how great support is offered to local and foreign investors. At the end of 2014, entrepreneurs operating in the zones invested above PLN 101.9 billion and created approximate-ly 295.6 thousand jobs, from which nearly 213.9 thousand (i.e. 72.4%) were new work places created after investors obtained permits for conducting business in a given zone. It resulted directly from new investments implementation.

induSTRiAl invESTmEnTS

Despite the fact that since 2008 Europe has been troubled by the global financial crisis, the Polish market of industrial investments is attractive and is steadily growing. After the accession of Poland to the EU, new investment prospects and, as a result, new investments emerged.

2014 was record breaking for the sector of industrial and warehouse spaces in Poland. Developers delivered over 1 million square meters of modern spaces to the market. A high level of lodgers’ activity was observed and the vacancy rate achieved exceptionally low value. During the year 2015 rising trends have been also observed and prospects for 2016 are also promising.

The sector of industrial and warehouse space has great de-velopment prospect ahead of it – such conclusions can be drawn from a report entitled “Poland Industrial MarketView Q4 2014”, which was prepared by consulting company –


CBRE. In 2014, in Poland, the total supply of modern indu-strial and warehouse area exceeded 8.8 million m2. Accor-ding to the report, in 2014 alone, the developers supplied more than one million m2 of new industrial and warehouse space.

The region of Warsaw, with its resources of over 2.8 million m2 of modern space is still the strongest region in the Polish market. Upper Silesia and Wroclaw Region are amongst the leaders of regional markets. Upper Silesia offers 1.57 million m2 of modern space, while the Wroclaw Region has 1.26 mil-lion m2. Most of the new projects are the BTS (built to suit) format, and also investments secured by pre-let agreements. At the end of 2014 there were over 0.63 million m2 of in-dustrial and warehouse space under construction. The last quarter of 2014 was an indication that we have experienced growth of number of constructed buildings on a speculative basis.

The demand for warehouse space was mainly generated by companies from the logistics sector. Whereas, manufactu-ring space attracted most interest of companies from the au-tomotive and FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) sectors.

iT SECToR

The value of Polish IT market in 2010 reached PLN 25 billion, and within 5 years it has increased by PLN 5 billion thus re-aching PLN 30 billion. It is the 2nd largest market in Central and Eastern Europe following Russia.

Why this sector is worth investing in Poland? Certainly be-cause of a very dynamic growth of this market and increase of internal as well as external demand, which is well-proven by such concerns like Microsoft, HP, Google, Oracle, IBM or SAP.

The main reason for such a fast growth of the Polish IT mar-ket, and resulting importance of Poland on the European and global market, is highly qualified personnel of specialist. Qu-ality of provided services and the level of creativity, which often exceeds employers’ expectations, are equally important factors. It is worth emphasizing that every year young Polish IT specialists win the top places in such international compe-titions for computer programmers like, Imagine Cup, Code Jam or the Central European Programming Contest (CEPC).

Steady flow of foreign investments and also moving produc-tion to Poland is a key element of such a dynamic growth of this sector. It results in reduction of prices of products and services and, thanks to technology transfer, it enables sharing

of vital experience and knowledge. The inflow of EU funds to companies enabled quick development of new IT tech-nologies. The companies improved infrastructure and skills of their workers. Funding under the Operational Programme Innovative Economy plays a vital role. Equally important is the fact that a substantial increase of spending on IT infrastruc-ture of households resulted in further reduction of prices of computers, and peripherals (printers, scanners, and others).

The IT sector virtually serves the entire market. However, thanks to their investments, the market is mainly driven by such industries as: telecommunications, financial sector, in-dustrial manufacturing sector, local and central administra-tion. About 1/3 of sales income from the IT sector in Poland is generated by the largest 350 companies. Their biggest con-tractors are state offices and institutions and also large com-panies (about 5000 of them). 22.6% of income of the largest IT companies comes from sales of products and services form administration. Another large group of customers are the fol-lowing: banking sector (15.7%, together with the financial sector it is 21.3%), telecommunications sector (15.4%) and industry (9.7%). An important trend on the IT market is a ra-pid growth of interest in IT software and services from the small and medium enterprises sector.

The constantly growing competition forces companies of this segment to implement innovation and introduce IT support to their business. On the other hand, reduction of business

phot. Shutterstock

68

software prices brings better availability of the ERP (enterpri-se resource planning) class solutions which previously were too expensive for these companies.

oRGAniC food

The organic food market in Poland has a big growth poten-tial. Awareness of what we eat is growing and the time where food just has to be tasty and cheap is slowly passing away. The competition led to the situation where the producers, in-stead of hiding the contents of their products, boast about it. The shops with healthy and organic food spring up in every Polish large city very fast. Today every supermarket must have a section with healthy and organic food. The media, sensing “good times”, are vitally interested in this subject and educate the society. In Poland there are many uncontaminated agricul-tural lands which are good for organic and ecological cultiva-tion. Presently, organic farming occupies over 600 thousands of ha in Poland. Therefore, it is not surprising that this branch of food production may be performed in our country from the stage of agriculture up to a finished product on the shop shelf. Of course such industry needs foreign output markets and Polish products must be promoted abroad. Only such aitude guarantees stability of the market and rapid growth.

Experts estimate that the current value of the Polish market of organic food exceeds PLN 700 million, and its rate of growth reaches 10-20% per annum. Since this type of food is bo-ught by only 30% of Poles, it is clear that there is still much potential. Sales of organic food is more popular abroad than

in Poland. For example in Germany it is 5%, whereas in our country it is just 0.2%. It is obvious that a good Polish base in connection with export of products can bring us success in this area. Especially when taking into account that we are one of major agricultural producers, but we have much to improve in food processing. In the year 2012 Poland was ranked 3rd in European Union in terms of quantity of organic farms. The overall number of organic food processing plants in Europe is as follows. In Netherlands there are 1035 of them, in UK - 2052, Italy - 5873, France - 8957, and 9183 in Germany. In 2013 there were 407 organic food processing plants located in Poland. Maybe this number is not large, but in 2003 we started with 22 of them. Therefore, it may soon turn out that we will catch up the rest, or I should rather say, we will take advantage of this opportunity.

It should be also pointed out that the organic food market changes our world for the better. Improving the quality of life and health of our society is the additional benefit from such investments. It is a secure market, but not an easy one as it mainly follows the trends for given products. Besides, it is of seasonal nature. As in the case of every industry connected with agriculture, the main risks are unpredictability of harvests and product prices depending on the levels of demand and supply.

TRAnSPoRT

The development of transport infrastructure largely deter-mines the quality level of transport services, as an extensive

phot. Shutterstock


transport network indirectly contributes to social and eco-nomic growth of a country and its regions. Moreover, it has a significant impact on improving quality of life.

Certainly the driving force for the development of trans-port and infrastructure was its accession to the Europe-an Union. This meant the access to European funds like, for example, the European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fund, and funds for implementation of TEN-T projects, and previously - the pre-accession funds. It can be stated that availability of infrastructural investment fi-nancing sources determined the path of growth. The funds from operational programmes are spent for investments in road transport, maritime economy, rail transport and urban transport. Investment efforts are made on all administrative levels - national, regional and local.

Nevertheless, Poland faces big challenges; the transport sector substantially contributes to the total volume of emissions. The total share of transport in the overall emis-sion of greenhouse gases in Poland, according to the data from 2012, amounted to 11.5% and its share in non-ETS exceeded 22%. Road transport generates 98% of the to-tal emissions from the transport sector. Unfortunately, if taking into account emissions of greenhouse gases from the transport sector, it obviously showing an upward trend, according to the emission forecasts, it will not change for at least the next 15 years. The transport sector requires revolutionary technological changes. Development of low--emission transport is a challenge that will not be comple-

ted without national and foreign investments. However, it is not only about the transport as the development of infrastructure, increasing the capacity of communication networks and development of charging network adapted for public use. For the years 2004-2013 Poland had access to about EUR 28.7 billion for the transport infrastructure projects. During the period of 2004-2006, which were the first two years after the accession to the EU, this amount reached EUR 5.4 billion, whereas between 2007-2013 it was as much as EUR 23.3 billion. Over the period of 2007-2013 in Poland were built motorways and express roads for the total amount of about EUR 16 billion (PLN 69.2 billion), of which about EUR 10 billion (PLN 42.6 billion) were co-financed from the EU funds. Since 2004, in total about 673 km of motorways have been built and 808 km of express roads have been modernised.

It is worth to emphasize that today Poles can be proud of themselves by innovative solutions regarding conversion of combustion-engined cars to electric cars, or manufacturing of country’s unique electric cars. The Green Cars Cluster is a perfect example. It brings together companies converting combustion-engined cars into EVs and manufacturing EVs, and, through manufacturing and distribution of charging stations, also develops the sector of low-carbon transport. All of these elements are components which define the de-velopment strategy of the Polish transport.

PowER EnGinEERinG

Development of the renewable energy sources sector is one of the key priorities of the Polish government. The Directive 2009/28/EC states that the EU member states should gradually increase the share of energy from renewa-ble sources in the overall consumption of energy within the transport sector. This creates a niche for enterprises intere-sted in developing new renewable energy technologies. A new governmental scheme establishes a grant program for researching and installing environmentally friendly techno-logies with a value of 8000 millions Euro.

The aims of Polish energy policy are focused on achieving growth of the share of RES in the overall energy consump-tion to 15.5% in the year 2020. According to sectors the increase of renewable energy sources utilisation presented as follows: 19.3% for electricity, 17% for heating and co-oling sector and 10.2% for transport fuels.

It requiers investments in new generation capacities. Cur-rently, the wind power engineering and utilization of bio-mass for energy generation are those sectors that grow the phot. Shutterstock

70

fastest. Development of manufacturing of equipment used to generate green energy is also very important for Poland, and recently it has been attracting more and more investors.It is also worth noting that according to the data of EurOb-serv’ER, Poland is ranked 5th in the EU in terms of gene-ration of primary energy from solid biomass, and also is a leader among the new EU member states in terms of the overall installed capacity of wind farms.

The Polish government supports generation of energy from renewable resources through various means, like for exam-ple:

� investment incentives for producers of renewable ener-gy (the system of “colourful certificates”);

� energy companies that deal with marketing and sales of electricity are obliged by law to purchase electricity from RES;

� the manufacturers of renewable energy have special priority access to the power grid;

� electricity from renewable sources is exempted from excise duties;

� the charge for connection of small facilities (<5 MW) to the grid is decreased by 50%. The installations of such type are also exempted from licence fee and annual fee paid by those who hold the licence;

� the investments in clean energy can be co-financed from the National Fund of Environmental Protection and Wa-ter Management.

REAl PRoPERTiES uSEd foR REnEwABlE EnERGy SouRCES

According to the ranking of the World Bank “Doing Business 2015”, Poland was ranked 32nd place among 189 econo-mies worldwide. The high ranking position means that the legal and regulatory environment in Poland is encouraging

Type of facility Quantity Power

212.497

1122.670

71.030

4582.036

981.799

no data44

752

1039

268

38

278biogas power plants

biomass power plants

photovoltaic facilities

wind plants

hydroelectric power plants

power plants exploiting the technology of co-combustion

Tab. 1: RES facilities (electricity)

Source: Energy Regulatory Authority (status as of the date 31 March 2013)

to invest in real property. This attracts companies from all over the world and makes Poland a good place for investing and expanding business.

Accession of Poland to European Union significantly incre-ased its attractiveness as a potential investment location. Since then, there has been an increase in the number of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). According to UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), in 2014, Poland experienced an increase of FDI (foreign direct investment) from USD 120 million to almost USD 13.9 bil-lion (20th place in the world), despite a downward trend ob-served in Europe and worldwide. The country’s favourable location, in the centre of Europe, where the main communi-cation routs intersect, makes it possible to export goods to all European countries and thus, reach over 500 million con-sumers. Poland’s major trade partners are, among others, Germany, Russia, China, France, the UK, Italy, Hungary, Ukraine and Spain.

Precedent of leasing land for wind/solar or biogas plants has become more and more common in the recent years. In EU, investors from RES industry are looking for expo-sed lands with no natural terrain obstacles (e.g. trees) and artificial obstacles (high buildings). For the above reasons, one can observe a growing interest in long-term lease of selected agricultural areas that is based on lease contract. Solar/photovoltaic and wind power plants or biogas plants that require large open areas are built in such areas. For many years, the tendency to use Renewable Energy Sources has been constantly growing. It partially stems from Euro-pean Union directives as well as social awareness. Europe faces the challenge of decreasing the level of CO2 emission to the atmosphere. Therefore, over the years, the develop-ment and use of agricultural land for RES will slowly but surely increase.

Type of RESReal economic potential - final energy[TJ] [TJ] [%]

Exploitation of economic potential in 2020 (the real market potential)

biomass 600.167,8 533.117,5 88,8

90,0

59,0

100,0

100,0

27,0

23,3

100,0

62,0

23,2

149.337,7

72.609,1

24.451,8

286.718,9

119.913,3

19.422,2

19.262,9

159,3

11.144,2

165.930,8

123.066,3

24.451,8

286.718,9

444.647,6

83.312,2

83.152,9

159,3

17.974,4

solid dry waste

biogas (wet waste)

timber (forests)

energy crops

wind power engineering

solar power engineering

thermal

photovoltaic

water power


PolAnd AS A REGion of dEvEloPmEnT And ChAl-lEnGES

The entire Europe, if not the entire world, faces the challen-ge of energy crisis. Since last several years, the West Europe-an countries make efforts to move away from conventional power engineering that is forced by nearing exhaustion of fossil fuels. Poland, in comparison to the Western Europe countries, like e.g. Germany, is still far behind in terms of utilisation of renewable energy sources. Therefore, investing in this sector in Poland is so important. This gives wide inve-stment possibilities for potential national and international investors. The climate conditions somehow forced an inte-rest in e.g. wind farms, solar farms, and especially technolo-

Tab. 2: Estimated exploitation of economic potential (final energy) in 2020 - the real market potential

Source: Possibilities of utilisation of renewable energy sources in Poland until the year 2020, IEO

gy transfer, as the calculability of a given investment largely depends on the implemented technologies, which are often purchased from technologically advanced countries.

Moreover, the automotive industry sector enjoys high in-terest and good prospects, and it de facto faces the same challenge, namely reduction of emissions. New investment opportunities are being created, like for example conversion of combustion-engined vehicles, or their mass production.

In conclusion, big challenges bring more opportunities, both social and investment ones. Therefore, Poland is an intere-sting and favourable place to locate and increase capital, both for national and foreign investors.

phot. Shutterstock

Inteligenttransportation

system

Electrictransportation

system

Smart ITCluster

Emergencymedical service

technology

Energy storagetechnology

Wind energytechnology

Solar energytechnology

Smart-housetechnology

Bio-technology

www.smartpl.org

72

intelligent solutions for mobility and energy

smart iT Cluster

Agnieszka Nowicka de Poraj

Creating Smart Cities, which are clean, environmentally friendly and thoughtfully managed, is a challenge for the future. The prime goal of the Smart IT Cluster (www.smartpl.org), which has been created by leading ICT companies, is to enhan-ce the idea of a Smart City and to implement all necessary technologies focused on improving the quality of human lives.

SmART CiTy – ThE REASon BEhind SmART iT CluSTER

A Smart City, which uses information and communication tech-nologies (ICT) to improve cleanliness, performance of urban services, traffic management, energy management and the pro-vision of water and waste services, is the main reason behind the creation of Smart IT Cluster. The Smart City is to be a place managed in a cost-effective and environmentally sound manner, and the overall objective of the Smart IT Cluster, which coope-rates in the field of innovative technologies, is to support local governments, public institutions and enterprises in the imple-mentation of new technologies and organisational solutions.

Regarding the technologies involved in the Smart City, the Smart IT Cluster can contribute to the development of the following areas:

phot. Shutterstockphot. Shutterstock


� transfer data between the meter and the central system with a desired frequency;

� detect theft, damage or unauthorized interference to any metering infrastructure;

� remotely disconnect the customer; � remotely change the operating mode and programme the

device; � remotely read data on power, heat and gas consumption2.

SmART iT CluSTER - fACTS And fiGuRES

The Smart IT Cluster was created with the assumption that the integration of the innovative IT companies could help effectively implement and finance difficult projects (projects that probably could not be implemented by only one com-pany). Among renowned companies which formed the Smart IT Cluster were:

� Huawei – a world leader in ICT solutions, with more than 20 years of experience in ICT sector and with revenues reaching tens of billions of USD per year (approximately USD 46.5 billion in 2014). Huawei focuses on delivering the most technologically advanced products, as well as on breaking barriers in the field of information and communi-cation technologies.

� Circutor LLC - a company with over 40 years of experience with several factories in Spain and in the Czech Republic. Circutor S.A. designs and produces the equipment, intended for increasing energy efficiency and for producing renewable energy such as multi-function electrical energy meters, energy management software, measuring current transfor-mers and smart outdoor recharge posts.

� NMG LLC – leader in delivering professional software sup-porting production management, industrial and building automation and energy consumption management. The NMG LLC solutions enable monitoring the production, modelling and optimizing of manufacturing processes, visualizing and controlling industrial processes, machines and production lines and also controlling and optimizing the consumption of electricity, gas, heat, wastewater, water, compressed air and steam.

� Calltech LLC – is an expert in providing professional har-dware and software solutions for companies operating in the ICT sector. Calltech LLC implements innovative IT projects and since 2001 it cooperated as a subcontractor with HP, T-systems, SUN, Oracle (previous Microsystems), Orange (previous PTK Centertel), Kapsch, APW Poland, and TVP. Calltech LLC is also an authorized representative of HP, Avaya, IBM, Microsoft and Toshiba.

� Green IT LLC – a company founded in 2009 which focuses on the segment of IT services. Green IT LLC offers inno-vative solutions for e-commerce, B2B systems, Content

mAin GoAlS of ThE SmART iT CluSTER in ThE fiEld of EnERGy mAnAGEmEnT

One of the main areas of Smart IT Cluster’s activity is energy management. In this area the Smart IT Cluster identified a few major goals:

� improving the efficiency of electricity use and hence impro-ving energy market competitiveness;

� promoting and developing Smart Grid technology; � implementing programmes for energy demand management; � integrating Polish IT solutions and members of Polish IT

market as well as exchanging knowledge and experience in the field of energy management;

� supporting the implementation of advanced IT solutions in the energy sector in Poland and Europe;

� strengthening the energy sovereignty; � conducting research and market analysis as well as coope-

rating with recognized research and development centres focused on the energy industry1.

The Smart IT Cluster assumes that Smart Grid technology and Smart Metering technology can play a key role in developing the Smart City – a city that cares about the environment and the quality of life of its community. Smart Grid is an answer to previous limitations and costs of the electrical grid and includes a variety of operational and energy measures such as smart meters, renewable energy resources, smart appliances and energy efficiency resources. Smart Grid technology is able to efficiently integrate the behaviour and performance of all the users (generators, consumers and users who are at the same time producers and consumers) and hence to create an energy system that is efficient, safe, cost-effective and consistent with the principles of sustainable development. The Smart Grid, which uses the latest ICT technologies and which is distingu-ished by a high quality and low level of losses, improves the efficiency, reliability and security of the energy supply chain and consequently, reduces losses and energy transmission costs. An important component of Smart Grid is Smart Metering which enables gathering, analysing and remote reporting of the data on energy consumption. This two-way communication in real time is possible thanks to the use of two components: an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and a Meter Data Management which is a special computer software for data management. Smart Metering devices are more technologically advanced than automatic meter reading devices (AMR) since they can for example:

� measure selected physical quantities at a given frequency such as active power consumption, reactive power con-sumption, voltage level and the length of the interruptions in the energy supply;

� store selected data in a certain period of time;

74

References:

1. www.smartpl.org2. Ibidem

Management Systems (CMS), Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRM) and also for mobile and cloud applications. Currently, the Green IT LLC is deve-loping an innovative platform “Green Control System” – a business services platform based on the distributed measurement and control system, integrated in the cloud. The platform “Green Control System” includes: Recorders Green AST, Recorders Green Logger, Green Control Web Platform and the package of mobile applications Green Control Mobile.

� Online Expo Polska LLC – a company founded in 2008 which focuses on organising online trade fairs. Such fairs include many economy sectors, e.g. education, tourism, health and construction industry. Online Expo Polska LLC offers all the exhibitors a virtual exhibition space as well as graphic services (which include the preparation of virtual stand exhibitions) and marketing (which mainly ensure a certain number of visits).

AChiEvEmEnTS of ThE SmART iT CluSTER

So far, the Smart IT Cluster has carried out a number of important projects:

Prosument PRo Platform ■ facilitates the information flow between the Prosument

Pro project partners ■ with the CRM system it enables the cooperation of sales

agents, funding and procurement specialists, installers, software and hardware producers, equipment distribu-tors, designers, insurance companies and logistics centers

Green Point � Monitors and counts EV charging points � Enables data transfer from charging points to the serve-

r,and the transfer takes place in real time � Integrates charging stations that belong to different

companies

BazaPl � Supports entrepreneurs in doing business and advises

individual clients in various areas; � Provides expertise in financing acquisition, investment,

loans, insurance, legal advice and IT technology.

EGTA � Supports the processes of knowledge and technology

transfer by building strong and solid relations between companies and research and development institutions in the European Union

� Promotes innovations that nowadays are key factors

for competitiveness and the core of modern enterprise development strategies

Business Services Centre � Enables online trade fairs and helps entrepreneurs and indi-

vidual clients make business contacts � Offers services in accounting, CRM, e-marketing, security

and customer service

Green Cloud � The European leader in Cloud Computing systems � A platform which allows management of the Corporation

and firms � Answer for users’ needs of mobile technologies � It is open to new applications and equipments. Compatible

with every type of application � Shares the infrastuctures via developers in PaaS system � The platform which would be used by many sectors like:

energy, logistics, security etc. � Quickly and directly contact between entities.

ThE offER foR ThE PoTEnTiAl PARTnERS

The Smart IT Cluster carries out the projects that are difficult to conduct by one company alone and the network connections, which the Cluster offers to its members, allows a constant deve-lopment of systems, processes and products. The synergy effect that results from joining the forces creates the value which greatly exceeds the sum of the values created by the companies individually. In order to continuously develop the potential, the Smart IT Cluster invited to cooperation all possible companies operating on the ICT market, legal institutions, universities and associations. Joining the Smart IT Cluster is associated with many benefits, among which the most important are as follows:

� conducting joint projects involving various branches of the economy;

� taking on various activities, aimed at implementation of innovative solutions;

� minimising the risks and costs associated with implementing innovative technologies;

� achieving higher profits than average ones; � increasing the scale of the projects and building companies’

position on Polish, European and world markets.


smart MasoviaNew challenges for the self-government of Masovian VoivodeshipMarshal Office of Masovian Voivodeship

The objectives of the self-government Masovian Voivodeship innovation programme have been identified in the Regional Innovation Strategy for Masovia. The first edition of this document was established in 2008 and covered the years 2007-2015. Since the se-cond half of 2012, measures have been taken to update the strategy. New Regional Innovation Strategy for Mazowsze 2020 (RIS Masovia) was adopted in March 2015. What were the reasons for updating this document?

The need for changes resulted from the adoption of new strategic documents on the European level, such as the ”Europe 2020” strategy, the ”Innovation Union” flagship and ”European Digital Agenda”. The second reason is connected with the effects of the review of strategic do-cuments on the regional level, which was carried out in connection with Masovian preparation to implement Eu-ropean funds as a part of the new financial perspective. The most important changes in the RIS Masovian include:

� identification and implementation of smart specialisa-tion;

� inclusion of social innovation; � defining assumptions of cluster policy in the region; � inclusion of the issues of the information society; � continuation of e-development of Masovian Voivode-

ship strategy, which until now functioned as a sepa-rate strategy.

phot. Shutterstock

76

SmART SPECiAliSATion

The new financial perspective 2014-2020 constitutes a new challenge for the beneficiaries of operational pro-grammes financed from EU funds, but also for regional authorities. One of the preconditions for support from the Regional Operational Programme of Masovian Vo-ivodeship for 2014-2020 (RPO WM 2014-2020) for activities related to research and development is to im-plement the concept of ”smart specialisation”. According to what the European Commission (EC) represents, the concept of ”smart specialisation” implies focusing reso-urces in areas with the greatest development potential in the region. This means focusing efforts and resources on those areas in which support would bring the gre-atest added value and which would help to increase the competitiveness of the region. The EC has not identified a single, consistent definition of smart specialisation nor the uniform methodology for the identification of the areas, thus challenging the regions to find the optimal path for these proceedings. In order to participate ac-tively in achieving the objectives of the ”Europe 2020” and to enable the Masovian operators to benefit from European funds intended for research and development, the region’s authorities together with entrepreneurs, representatives of scientific and business environment intuition have developed areas of smart specialisation of Masovia. Their identification was divided into the follo-wing stages:

� diagnosis of the areas with the greatest endogenous potential;

� meetings with businessmen and representatives of scientific and business environment;

� gathering insights on directions of innovation deve-lopment in the region;

� conducting surveys on the regional smart specialisa-tion;

� prioritisation of areas of action.

In each individual step, a number of activities were un-dertaken, including research and analysis, which served to diagnose of the state of innovation in the Masovia region. It should be emphasised that the activities con-ducted in Masovia region assumed a bottom-up iden-tification of areas of specialisation and therefore they comprised working meetings and workshops throughout the region and were concerned with the identification of potentials and development deficits of the region. They also included open meetings in the sub-regions centres, individual consultation work and public consultation. In the process of identifying areas of smart specialisation

different groups of stakeholders along with representati-ves of entrepreneurs, clusters, academic institutions and business support institutions have been involved. In ad-dition, the process has involved a wide range of experts, including representatives of Innovation Council of Ma-sovia. While identifying areas of smart specialisation, the characteristics and needs of Masovia have been taken into consideration and yield the following assumptions::

� smart specialisation (SS) intends to focus the resour-ces of knowledge in the region on a limited number of economic objectives, which will allow the efficient use of funds from various sources by giving a com-mon direction to actions taken at various levels;

� SS is understood as a process that applies not only to the economic potential of the region, but also re-quires building a system to support innovation, inclu-ding interventions in the field of business, the envi-ronment, science, public administration and society;

� SS should combine the development priorities of local authorities with the real needs of local stake-holders, in particular businesses, therefore, needs to ensure the active participation of stakeholders in the identification, implementation, monitoring and chan-ging smart specialisation.

The conducted activities have identified a set of the most promising sectors of the economy, technology and service processes in the region. Then, by analysing the links and feedbacks between different economic areas and leading technologies, four areas of smart speciali-sation were selected: „high quality of life”, „food safety”, „intelligent management systems”, „modern services for business”.

The fulfilment of the conditions imposed by the Europe-an Commission is required to ensure the active partici-pation of various groups of stakeholders, especially busi-nesses, in the processes of programming, monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of the support for smart specialisation. For this purpose, regional authorities have set up working groups dedicated to particular areas of smart specialisation. Their tasks include, among others, targeting of support in line with the current needs of the economy, as well as supporting the regional autho-rities in the process of managing and monitoring the RIS Masovia. Smart specialisation will participate in consul-tations on supporting instruments within specialisation (e.g. assumptions of competitions, project selection cri-terions - proposals on conditions of support of the SS regions in Regional Operational Programme of Masovian Voivodeship for 2014-2020).

Intelligent managementsystems

Food safety

High qualityof life

Modern servicesfor business

Source: Department of Regional Development and EU Funds, The Office of the Marshal of the Masovian Voivodeship in Warsaw


Smart SpecialiSationS of the maSoVian VoiVoDShip

� measures to reduce polarisation of the region’s development;

� initiatives to enhance the functiona-lity and safety of life;

� rations using the remote channels of communication (telephone and e-services);

� mechanisms for building social capital;

� instruments to stimulate social innovation;

� measures to increase the availabi-lity and adequacy of specific group providing social services.

� advanced infrastructure solutions

� energy measurement, raw materials and energy

� actions to improve the quality of life

� tools to assist decision-making process

� high-quality food products � production in accordance with

sustainable development, safe for the end user

� delivering safety for the envi-ronment throughout the pro-duction cycle and distribution

� shaping a favourable environ-ment for entrepreneurship

� stimulating R&D services � mechanisms to improve the

availability of financial services � initiatives aimed at strengthe-

ning the status of Warsaw as a service centre

high quality of life

fooD Safety intelligent manage-ment SyStemS

moDern SerViceS for buSineSS

Source: Department of Regional Development and EU Funds,

The Office of the Marshal of the Masovian Voivodeship in Warsaw.

woRkinG GRouPS foR SmART SPECiAliSATion:

� composed of business representatives, with the advisory capacities belonging to scientific institutions and business environment institutions;

� the regional authorities - (ultimately) observer, the reci-pient of the group results;

� group functioning - a continuous process, depending on the commitment of the participants;

� open and public nature of the working groups.

note: you can join the group at any stage. for more information visit our page, the section working Group on smart specialisation.

78

whAT iS ThE imPACT of SmART SPECiAliSATion in mASoviA on finAnCE innovATion in ThE 2014-2020 PERSPECTivE, wiTh PuBliC fundS, in-CludinG Eu fundS?

As it was mentioned earlier, for regional authorities would be able to provide support for research and de-velopment, it was necessary to identify areas of smart specialisation. Applicants who fit into the area of smart specialisation will be able to apply for support under the I Priority Axis. When concerning some types of opera-tions under Measure 1.2, this compliance shall be veri-fied on two levels as compliance with one or more of the areas of smart specialisation and as compliance with the study objectives. The term “priority directions of rese-arch” (research agendas) should be understood as a deta-iled clarification of R&D areas that will have the greatest impact on the innovative development of the company. Research Agenda was developed by working groups for smart specialisation. The adoption of the first research agendas took place in the fourth quarter of 2015. This allowed to announce of competitions at the beginning of 2016, where compliance with the priority directions of the research was required. At the same time, it has to be underlined that in case of Priority Axis, it is planned that

ventures undertaken in areas compliant with the specia-lisation and complementary to the agreed development direction are going to be favoured.

CluSTER PoliCy

Being the part of the Regional Innovation Strategy for Masovia 2020, we determined the assumptions for clu-ster policy by identifying areas of support and dedicated tools for clusters. The research in the context of upda-ting the RIS Masovia allows the formulation of synthetic characteristics of Masovia cluster initiatives:

� clusters in Masovia are characterised by their great diver-sity, in a similar or even the same business area there are several initiatives operating;

� most of the initiatives are in the early stages of develop-ment, taking into account the time of functioning and dy-namics of the processes taking place in their structures;

� an analysis of the profile of clusters in Masovia services indicates the nature of the subjects of study;

� clusters of respondents branch structure are characteri-sed by a preponderance of the structures derived from two sectors: medical and information technology;

� human capital should be considered as a key resource in the current state of development of Masovia cluster (in-cluding the so-called tacit knowledge) located in Cluster

phot. Shutterstock


References:1. Analysis of the impact of cluster initiatives from Masovia in

shaping regional smart specialization, Warsaw 2013, pp. 7-10.

entities and intellectual property invested in individual clusters.

According to the adopted assemblies, key regional clusters will be selected at regional level as the clusters with the greatest competitive potential. Bearing in mind the concept of smart specialisation, support will be provided to clusters that fit into the areas of smart specialisation in the region, which will contribute to the optimisation of public support. The support will depend on the development phase of the cluster/cluster initiative. Support for cluste/cluster initiative will take place at two levels:

� level 1: support aimed at animators (BEI) and coordi-nators to increase internationalisation and innovation clusters and strengthen their competitiveness in the pro-cess of applying international instruments’ support;

� level 2: support for entrepreneurs included in a cluster to implement projects designed to achieve a certain effect of the market.

The self-government of Masovia Voivodeship will stand as a coordinator of the cluster’s policy, which won’t be a part of the cluster or its initiatives. Selection of key regional clu-sters is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2015. One of the benefits of having the status of regional cluster are key preferences in competitions announced as part of RPO WM 2014-2020, in which the possibility of applying for funding will be directed to a group of beneficiaries defined as coope-rative relations. An additional benefit will be the opportunity to participate in the initiatives undertaken by the regional au-thorities in the context of non-competitive projects financed by the RPO WM 2014-2020. Bearing in mind the limitations that have emerged in the field of cluster support from EU funds in the 2014-2020 perspective and which developed the instrument for cluster support from Masovia’s own bud-get, this mechanism will be implemented in the form of an open tender for the implementation of public tasks, regional authorities related to the promotion of innovation. The com-petition is planned for the amount of PLN 300.000 in 2016. Funds will be used for the promotion and development of clusters/cluster initiatives and for strengthening their compe-titive position on the market, by strengthening cooperation between science and business. The contest announcement date is set for the first quarter of 2016. Information about the contest will be available at: www.dialog.mazovia.pl and www.ris.mazovia.pl.

REGionAl innovATion SuPPoRT SySTEm

The regional innovation support system consists of all the mechanisms and instruments, which initiator, animator or

executor belongs to the self-government Masovia Voivode-ship. In 2014-2020, the self-government Masovia Voivode-ship will carry out two projects under The RPO WM 2014-2020. The first project was planned under Measure 1.2. It assumed strengthening of the projects, which contribute to the increase of entrepreneurial activity to undertake R&D and innovation through cooperation with other actors of the regional innovation system and strengthening the pro-cess of the entrepreneurial discovery. This support will be implemented through cooperation, exchange of information, strengthening of the transfer of knowledge and technology from R&D to companies operating in specialist areas, as well as through the promotion of innovation and international cooperation.

Another project planned for Measure 3.1. will focus on the integration of existing BEI services, including, among others, product development, access to capital, specialist consultan-cy for SMEs. The role of regional authorities is to animate cooperation, develop and initiate with BEI and business solutions to achieve this goal.

phot. Shutterstock

80

Agnieszka Nowicka de Poraj

from idea to innovationhow to be an effective innovator

Though there is a wide gap between having an idea and implementing the innova-tion it carries, the innovations are the real driving force behind economic develop-ment. An effective innovator is able to link technological mastership with openness to challenges, courage to meet what is unknown and readiness to cooperate with others.

innovATionS And ComPETiTivEnESS of ComPA-niES

Technological innovations, understood mostly as new pro-ducts, new production methods or new work management methods, can strongly influence the competitiveness of companies. Efficiency growth leads to productivity growth, affecting positively the competitiveness of companies, which is essential nowadays. Innovations enable companies to improve the quality of products and services, decrease production or provision costs, rationalise production, lower energy and material consumption, enrich product offering and put their products or services on new markets1.

A company, in order to trade effectively, should constantly seek for new solutions. Innovations allow for strengthening its position on the current market or increasing its competiti-veness on the new market. Striving for profit maximising and operating costs minimising, the company naturally becomes an innovator – a subject which commercialises new techno-logy and implements innovative idea on practical terms.

mAnAGinG TEChnoloGiES in ComPAny

In the case of the knowledge-based economy, the applied technologies are decisive factors in terms of advantage and goodwill of the company (the competition between Micro-soft and Apple is a good example). That is why understan-ding technological development path and wise technology management are the key aspects for companies’ progress. Taking into account the latter aspect, what matter the most are the life cycle of technology and its competitive force.

The curve of technology life cycle, also called the potential of technology, reflects the shape of “S” letter, which means

that in the initial stage of “life” it requires some improve-ments, whereas in the final stage it reaches the maximum of its effectiveness. Being well familiarised with the life cycle of technology allows entrepreneurs to replace old technology with the new one in the most suitable moment.

Technology I(the old one)

Technology II(the new one)Te

chno

logy

effe

ctive

ness Physical limits

of technology II

Physical limitsof technology I

Time interval for replacingtechnology

(”technology window”)

Technology II life cycle

Time

Technology I life cycleToo early for introducing

new technologyToo late for introducing

new technology

Source: Own study based on 1.

fig.1. life cycle curves of technology

Competitive force means the influence of particular tech-nology on reaching competitive advantage. Being aware of competitive effectiveness of individual technologies allows entrepreneurs for seing priorities in terms of increasing and strengthening them. It should be managed, of course, with particular focus on strategies and objectives shared by the company. Depending on competitive force, technologies can be categorised as follow:

� Base technologies – they are basic and widely used technologies, which are essential for the company ope-


phot. Shutterstock

82

rating, but rather ineffective when it comes to building company advantage on the market.

� Key technologies – they allow entrepreneurs to reach the competitive advantage.

� Seing-pace technologies – they are progressive tech-nologies, which are in their initial development stage, but have chances of replacing key technologies and, at the same time, increasing the company’s competi-tiveness.

� Emerging technologies – they are technologies, which usefulness has not been proved yet, however, after re-fining them, they have chances of changing competi-tion rules in particular business2.

TEChnoloGy TRAnSfER

Under conditions of fierce competition, growing consu-mers’ needs and shorter life cycle of products and tech-nologies, companies need to constantly seek for innova-tions and implement new solutions. New technologies may come from internal sources (therefore they can be produced in research and development units operating on the premises of a company), external sources (in this case companies use technologies developed by separated units) or mixed sources (both from internal and external sources).

When acquiring technology from external sources, tech-nology transfer may reflect the vertical or horizontal form. Horizontal technology transfer takes place between com-panies and means, among others, sale of patents, licen-ces and the “know-how”, undertaking joint actions and industrial cooperation. Vertical technology transfer means, above all, acquiring knowledge on public R&D sector, inc-luding purchasing inventions, patents, licences and utility models as well as assigning contract research.

It is worth mentioning that technology transfer covers not only the most common forms and innovation media such as publications (open knowledge media), patents and li-censes (protected knowledge media), but also various co-urses, trainings and trade fairs (formalised channels of dif-fusion of innovations), mergers and acquisitions, informal contacts with clients or the purchase of innovative machi-nes and devices3.

Technology transfer is also a much more complicated process than typical commercial exchange. On one hand, technology supplier is a monopolist but, on the other hand, what is the subject of the exchange are new solu-tions, which effectiveness cannot be precisely predicted.

5 STAGES of TEChnoloGy TRAnSfER PRoCESS

Technology transfer makes competitive position building easier, however, the process can be successful only when it is effectively implemented in business practice. The task is complicated and innovators have to pass it. According to the team led by Prof. Krzysztof Santarek, technology trans-fer process consists of 5 stages:

Source: Santarek K.(ed.), op.cit

Generation of ideas

Preselection of projects

Incubation

Implementation

Promotion

Generation of ideas and preselection of projects are stages which answer the question: what can this new technology bring to the market? These first two stages of technology transfer process lead to identification of commercial po-tential of innovation or new technology. Incubation stage involves defining the product and determining its speci-fication as well as validating technology effectiveness in terms of market needs. Incubation should also contain demonstrating, at least in laboratory conditions, the most characteristic product features, and creating business plan with the information about business risk and the ways of limiting such risk4. The last two stages are promotion and implementation of solutions that have a defined and con-firmed value with the support of innovation and business centres.

Technology Readiness Levels - TRL

Testing, introducing and operating of the system

Testing technology in real conditions is successfulTRL 9

TRL 8 The research and demonstration of the final form of technology are completed

TRL 7 Demonstration of the technology prototype in operating conditions is done

TRL 6Demonstration of the prototype and system model or technology subsystem in

conditions similar to the real ones is done

TRL 5Technology components and basic subsystems are verified in conditions similar to

the real ones

TRL 4 Technology components and basic subsystems are verified in laboratory conditions

TRL 3 Analytical and experimental critical technology functions or concepts are confirmed

TRL 2 Technology concept and its future application are determined

TRL 1 Basic principles of a particular phenomenon are observed and described

Developing system and subsystem

Demonstrating technology

Developing technology

Research aiming at confirmingpracticability

Basic research concerningtechnology

Source: www.spaceoffice.nl/nl/Het-NSO/NSO-en-ESA/Technology-Readiness-Levels-TRL/


On each stage of technology transfer process various tools are applied:

� Generation of ideas – survey, brainstorming and Del-phy method,

� Preselection of projects – sector analysis, scenario analysis, Pareto analysis and methods of evaluating technology,

� incubation – sector analysis, market alliances analysis, scenario analysis, technological capabilities analysis and methods of evaluating technology,

� Promotion – technological capabilities analysis and market alliances analysis,

� implementation – technological capabilities analysis and market alliances analysis5.

Apart from the above tools, in technology transfer pro-cess different types of work are distinguished:

� Basic research – theoretical and experimental rese-arch, which does not aim at direct, practical use,

� Applied research – unlike basic research, it aims at ga-ining knowledge and skills concerning particular use,

� development works – operations which aim at de-veloping new goods, processes and services during which already gained knowledge is applied,

� industrial research – research which is targeted at ga-ining particular type of knowledge and which is to be used in particular processes of production or providing services,

� Pre-competitive research – operations aiming at im-plementing the results of industrial research into new project;

� Prototyping – activities focused on building a proto-type, i.e. an experimental module, in order to verify all theoretical assumptions regarding the product,

� implementation works – operations focused on ef-fective implementation of particular technological so-lutions into business practice, including e.g. creating complete technical documentation and launching pro-duction process6.

finAnCiAl SuPPoRT foR innovAToRS

Technology transfer process is costly, therefore innovator has to decide whether they are able to finance the process from their own funds or need external financing. The decision on financing technology transfer from own funds depends upon the maturity of technology and the difficulty level of its implementation.

If technology is mature and its difficulty level of implemen-tation is low, it is easier for company to finance technolo-gy transfer from its own funds. The two aforementioned factors are critical when it comes to deciding whether to choose external financing, debt financing (bank loan, loan from loan fund, leasing) or equity financing (grants from the EU or other international institutions and organisa-tions structural funds, venture capital). It is generally ac-cepted that when technology maturity level is low, inno-vator should seek for public support (grant from the EU or equity funds) or special private support (from so called business angels). When technology maturity level is me-dium-high or high and the difficulty level of implemen-

84

ting technology is relatively low, a company should take a loan or a bank credit. However, in case of medium or high technology maturity level and medium or high difficulty level of implementation, the best solution is technological credit or venture capital, seed capital funds or corporative venture capital7.

non-finAnCiAl SuPPoRT foR innovAToRS

When conducting technology transfer process, innova-tors often benefit from the specialised support from tech-nology transfer centres and technology brokers operating within their structures. The centres’ main role is to help with raising capital for implementation of innovative un-dertakings, seeking business and technology partners and

Difficulty levels of implementing technology

Difficulty level Description

High (1)

Medium-high (2)

Medium (3)

Medium-low (4)

Low (5)

Predicted, unusually high difficulty level. The implemented technology is connected to the necessity of changes in nearly each production and organisational processes of the company; the systemic change – implementing innovation which is radical to company.

Example: one-off attempt of replacing furniture production with electronics production line.

Expected medium difficulty level in reaching set goals; risky undertaking – the change is essential for important part of business activity. In this undertaking, backup plan or the plan of withdrawing from production environment is required.

Example: relocation of shoe factory – launching modern production line in new location and slow withdrawal of production from old location.

Expected moderate difficulty level in technology transfer; the change introduces modifi-cation or improvement in the selected company’s production process. Similar implemen-tations in the company took place earlier, therefore it is assumed that the company has well-established competencies in terms of said implementation.

Example: purchasing an additional, more modern machine for cuing and processing from the manufacturer, with whom the company was cooperated earlier.

Implementation of superficial change or modification carried out in a way that does not interfere with company’s critical production processes.

Example: purchasing new service/application for Marketing Department which would ensure the real-time access to listings.

Comprehensive implementation of modifications in company’s numerous critical pro-duction processes. Effective planning of implementation requires time and involvement of company’s key resources. Resulting change does not allow for coming back to the previous production status.

Example: necessary adjustment of banking applications to legal changes, which imme-diately start influencing the legal environment.

developing business activity by entering foreign markets.Technology brokers perform also an additional function, which is crucial when it comes to relations between the technology owner and the investor where the matter of trust always appears. Technology owner cannot reveal any details about technology which have not been com-mercialised or sold yet. The investor, on the other hand, does not want to buy a proverbial pig in a poke. That is why technology brokers become so important – they gu-arantee safe and reliable process conducting as well as objective analysis of technology value and reliability of business partners.

Along with technology commercialisation, many entre-preneurs want to enter global markets. There are some


References:

1. Santarek K. (ed.), Technology transfer from universities to bu-siness. Creating mechanisms for technology transfer, PARP, Warsaw 2008

2. Klajbor T., Koszałka J., A Guide for Entrepreneurs - Practical-technology transfer companies, MSODI, Warsaw 2013

3. Santarek K.(ed.), op.cit4. Berger S.F., Mozenter M.J., Technology Commercialization Fra-

mework, BizLogx LLC, Columbus, 20045. Santarek K.(ed.), op.cit.6. Klajbor T., Koszałka J., op.cit.7. www.spaceoffice.nl

international organisations which would help in achieving the objective e.g. European Platfrom for Technology Trans-fer, which is the part of the European Green Technology Alliance – international platform for technological and busi-ness cooperation (associating over 300 companies and bu-siness support institutions from all over Europe). European Platform for Technology Transfer supports all technology transfer areas thanks to specialised business environment institutions operating in all European countries and the co-operation network operating on other continents.

lET’S TAlk ABouT fuTuRE

In global economy there are innovations, which warrant the success of single companies and entire economies. Poland is a country which role rapidly evolves both on the Euro-pean and global markets, being considered the supplier of cheap labour in the 1990s and the source of highly skilled human capital in business services sector in the last deca-de. Our country is at a threshold of enabling its potential in terms of developing technological ideas and generating innovative technologies. There is a clear evidence that Po-land is becoming a crucial technological player on global markets as Polish inventions are recognised by respected international investors and conquer global markets.

Why is that? Have we become more innovative because the genius dawned on us? Well, no. Poland’s accession to the European Union simply enabled international know-ledge transfer processes, which granted Polish scientists, engineers and makers access to great global know-how and taught them how to benefit from cooperation and contacts and use them for commercialising their own so-lutions. Thanks to various forms of the knowledge trans-fer, we do not have to duplicate existing ideas, but focus on our inventions, which have access to capital and mo-dern methods of commercialisation.

phot. Shutterstock

86

phot. Shutterstock


Elv prototype of green Cars Clustera breakthrough in electric automotiveKatarzyna Anita Piotrowska

Means of transport are one of the main reasons of environment pollution as well as climatic changes such as: global warming, smog or acid rains. Carbon dioxide is responsible for gre-enhouse effect, that is why we are looking for technologies that would limit emission of this gas to the atmosphere. Passing only ten kilometers by car generates 2kg of CO2. Within an hour, a car transforms 6000 liters of oxygen into fumes. In comparison, an average deciduous tree produces 1200 liters of oxygen and a human consumes 30 liters per hour.1 We also have to remember that the crude oil is non-renewable. Therefore, its price will rise as the resources will decrease. The forecasts are not optimistic: we will be hard-hit by the lack of oil within the next 50 years.

In the face of the threat, cars with alternative engines in comparison to the combustion onces, seem to be not just a nice diversification, but a necessity. Investment in new tech-nologies – a direction that Western Europe and the United States should have taken long time ago – is the best and the only solution. The discoveries from science-fiction are not only imagination inspired by the light of silver screen – it is our upcoming reality.

At the same time, one has to remember that electric cars were very popular means of transport already in XIX century. Obviously, contemporary vehicles represent different, more progressive form. Since 1900, electric energy-powered cars were widely recognized. One reason behind this was the simplicity of starting them – one did not have to deal with the starter as in the case of the combustion engine. One of the most popular electric cars of that times were vehic-les produced by Baker Motor Vehicle, which were able to go almost 100 km on a single charge of acid accumulator. Unfortunately, poor quality of electric cells of that times resulted in electric cars being displaced by combustion cars.

Nowadays, one can observe a return to once abandoned technological solutions. It is worth mentioning the ELV001 prototype, a pride of Polish constructors associated in Green Cars Cluster (ed. carspl.eu). The car was manufactured in less than half a year and nearly 90% of the parts came from Polish manufacturers. Constructed with the financial support from the EU, the car reaches the velocity from

0 to 100 km/h in just 6 seconds. The model was presented for the first time in June 2011 and it already caught great interest since Electric-power is immensely economical and generate low exploitation costs – according to claims of the creators, ELV001 is able to cover 100 km distance for just PLN 4.

Companies and institutions associated in Green Cars Cluster (www.carspl.eu) developed modification thanks to which it became possible to transform combustion cars into electric ones. Members of GreenCars are convinced that the element initiating attempt to establish Poland’s sovereignty in terms of energy is the active creation of electric cars market along with parallel development of intelligent networks of rene-wable energy sources. Electricity could already eliminate oil with great benefits for the users, environment and future generations.2

nEw fACE of fiAT

On the basis of technology developed by Green Cars Cluster, in 2011, the group has conducted a complex conversion of cars for Energa Operator Group. Fiat Panda cars were modified with the use of the newest, unconventional technological solutions. In 9 converted cars, a 15kW AC synchronous electric motor with torque of 105 Nm was installed. It reaches the maximum speed of 160 km/h, what in comparison to models with traditional combustion engine, gives less power, but higher torque.

88

Converted cars can be charged even in normal electric socket (230 V, 16 A). To fully charge the car one needs approxima-telly 18kWh, what will allow to cover 180 km of distance. Also economic aspects are in favor of looking at this modern solution in detail. With current energy prices, one whole “refueling” will cost less than PLN 5.

ChAnGE inSTEAd of BuyinG

The implementation of technology in combustion cars beco-mes an increasingly popular way of introducing efficient, ecological solutions. Conversion of the car is much cheaper than buying a new one, thus it is a much affordable solution and can be used by more car users.

What does the process of conversion comprises of? The combustion engine is removed and instead of it, an electric engine is installed along with the base on which the batteries are placed. Depending on the capacity of the boot, batte-ries can be put in the rear sector fiing a special frame for the batteries, which are charged afterwards. The charging process lasts from 5 to 8 hours, depending on the car and parameters. The energy can come from a normal 230V power socket, however there is still a supply network with charging points, where one can „refuel” the car in less than 30 minutes.

GREEn BoX - (BlACk BoX) foR ThE BRiGhT fuTuRE

One of the companies, associated within the Green Cars Cluster - Green Taxi, based on the idea of green transport - combines the idea of ecological transport and functional system of renting cars. The fleet offered by the company is directed not only at taxi corporations, enterprises or public administration bodies, but also at private individuals. However, Green Taxi means not only eco and functiona-lity but also safety. Wide market experience and expertise in technology allowed for creation of AST, so-called “black box”. Its usability is based on four systems, i.e. measuring system, archiving system, communication system and exten-sion system.

The key designation of AST is the immediate communication to proper offices about an accident. The archiving system consists of number of non-volatile memories of different kind: NOR Flash, NAND Flash, FRAM and microSD. Its task is to archive and store parameters of the product for a certain period of time which are generated by the remaining AST systems. The communication system is equipped with GSM module, WIFI module, USD interface, one-frequency radio working at 2.4[GHz] and multi-frequency radio working at 315[MHz], 433[MHz], 868[MHz], 915[MHz].

A detailed record of parameters of drive (with 100[Hz] frequ-ency) makes AST a very precise tool for determining position, direction and velocity of the car, with an accurate reference of the data to GPS localizer. AST also makes it possible to record basic parameters of the drive, what allows for recreating its dynamics and help determine the way of driving a car. Extension system contributes to an increase of functionality of the “black box”. It is an optional but a very practical step. It consists of a set of peripheral devices that communicate with the AST with or without the use of a wire. These are: OBD2, an alarm, pager, barcode reader, display with the touch panel and a device compatible with Bluetooth 4.0 and ANT/ANT+.

Thanks to AST communication with the cloud, one can send archived, basic parameters of the drive and the record of inci-dents with the possibility to download detailed parameters from the moment when an accident happened.

old idEAS in A nEw foRm

Nowadays, there are a lot of skeptical views on electric vehicles: it goes without saying that the technology is very demanding and dependent on properly designed infrastruc-ture, equipped with universal charging stations. Nevertheless, this alternative means of transport are slowly gaining new supporters. There are many brands that specialize in produc-tion of electric cars only. Let’s just think of myCar, which was used by the staff of county office in Mielec. What is more, models such as Mega e-City, which were used by employees of the town hall can serve a proof that transport based on electric energy is an issue that is worth giving a chance. In case of combustion cars, it seems that the saying “the new does not mean better” is very relevant. It is due to the fact that cars which are powered by the “clean” energy are given a chance by an increasing number of individual and fleet clients; these novel solutions are appreciated by both the media and administrative bodies, what can be exemplified by the prize in “Innovative Project 2010” competition, organized by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development , for implementing the project entitled “Developing the market of electric cars as well as the charging infrastructure as a way to achieve energy safety” awarded to Green Car electric car, which has been constructed by companies affiliated in Green Cars Cluster.

References:

1. Green philosophy, www.green-cars.pl/idea.html, 26.04.2016 2. Green Cars Cluster, carspl.eu, 26.04.2016


Pneumatic transportinstrument for the next revolution ?

Pneumatic transport is based on transferring the material, contained in a closed sealing line, by forming the pressure therein. Currently, this fast mode of transport is used only for transporting the substances and materials, such as oil or gas, and dry goods. There is a chance that in the near future the passenger rail transport will change into pneumatic trans-port. As it turned out, such way of transport can successfully replace the rail and aviation passenger services. Capsule with people rushing at the speed of sound, or even five times faster than it, represents a possible scenario, and is coming very soon. Such type of trans-portation, which uses magnetic technology, can be much cheaper, faster, safer, more convenient, but also more environmentally friendly than transport, which is available so far.

Małgorzata Szewczyk

phot. Hyperlooptech.com phot. Hyperlooptech.com

phot. Hyperlooptech.com

Car

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

Motorcycle

Airplane

Train

Model S

Passenger Hyperloop

Passender + Vehicle Hyperloop

90

REvoluTioniZE ThE RAil mARkET

High-speed rail technology of pneumatic transport has very often caught the interest of the constructors. Currently, one of the originators of its application is Elon Musk from Hyper-loop Transportation Technologies (HTT), according to which such mode of transport could revolutionize the existing me-ans of communication. A company called Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies (ET3) has also advocated for the use of similar technologies in transport.

Both vehicle concepts assume that the travel speed can be increased by eliminating the rolling resistance. The transpor-tation capsules could levitate while moving on magnetic as well as air cushions, hovering over a single track. Using this type of technology, acceleration and deceleration of the ve-hicle would be performed by magnetic cushion. Considering the enormous speed with which the capsules would move, magnetic accelerators could be installed at a distance of a few kilometers from each other. The capsules would be disper-sed by compressed air and magnetic force, and inhibited in the same manner. Magnetic levitation technology has already been applied in the project of the Maglev vehicle and has been successfully used on a daily basis. The world speed record of this train constitutes 602 km/h. To reduce air resistance, the system would use the tunnel with vacuum. In the tunnel of this type, the pressure should be artificially reduced in order to minimize friction of the air. Pneumatic and electrical energy consumed during the acceleration of the vehicle, will be able to recover at its braking. Therefore, the energy expenditure on the trip would be small.

TEChniCAl PRoBlEmS

Each of the concepts used, involves pumping from the tun-nels almost all the air, allowing to reduce the pressure abo-ut ten times. However, the elimination of the problems with resistance and performance of the system is not so simple;

moreover, it constitutes another problem for the engineers. There is a certain ratio of the cross-section of the tunnel and the capsule, after crossing which, the moving capsule would behave like a plunger in the syringe. It means that the resistan-ce, which will be generated, will balance on both sides and the capsule will push ahead a column of air, which will increase the resistance at the front of the capsule. It happens even if the air pressure would be reduced to the assumed level. To avoid this, the Hyperloop project will pump the air through a special channel and under the capsule. The air flow under the capsule will additionally provide an air cushion, in other words, pillow, on which the vehicle will be able to lift easier. The air, flowing from the top to the sides of the capsule will allow to control its stability more easily. To overcome such technical problems the vehicle should move very quickly, or very slowly. From this perspective the laws of physics cannot be deceived, and the only solution to this problem is to make speed greater than the speed of a sound. Then, the air resistance would be greatly decreased.

Unfortunately, no one has tried to exceed the speed of sound in a sealed airtight tunnel. It is therefore difficult to say what effect this attempt may have on potential capsule passengers.The tunnels would be situated above the ground, mounted on very high columns or would be buried deep in the ground. Such a solution would allow to build the tunnel on the shor-test possible route in a straight line, eliminating the additional risk of collision. Another threat occurring at high speeds - is the overload on the corners. To avoid this type of phenome-na, tunnels of low pressure should be completely straight. The only thing that could influence the shape of the tunnel is the curvature of the earth’s crust.

BETwEEn ThE TRAin And PlAnE

The idea of ultrafast rail transport is a part of the concept of modern transport of the future, which would combine the speed of travel with ecology and low emissions. It should sup-

Tab. 1: Energy per Passenger per journey (mj)


plement the travel sector over medium distances, which is not cost-effective for aircraft, and too time-consuming for motor vehicles and railways. Using high speeds on intercontinental routes, it would compete with the air transport in the speed area of transport and its environmental performance. The ma-gnetic-pneumatic capsule, aimed at the transportation of pe-ople, would fill this gap by reducing travel time and the amo-unt of energy consumed for the trip. The problem of using great amount of energy by the classical form of transport in comparison to the above-mentioned technology, can be tra-ced in the chart below. These is how the operating costs of the Hyperloop project look when compared to other means of transport along the planned route Los Angeles - San Fran-cisco. The following chart shows a comparison of the energy cost of transportation between the two cities in the United States. After reading this chart, one can conclude that cove-ring this distance with the help of Hyperloop is even more effective from the perspective of energy than purely electric travel by Tesla S type car. The Elon Musk project could reco-ver the energy consumed during the journey, which makes it much more efficient than conventional vehicles.

So far assumed average travel speed of the capsule con-stitutes about 1100 km/h at relatively short distances, and even 6500 km/h at intercontinental distances. Currently, the existing magnetic railway transport is able to accelerate to the speed below 600 km/h. Increasing this speed is diffi-cult because of the conferred air resistance and generated level of noise inside and outside the vehicle. The only way to exceed these speeds is to remove the air and rolling re-sistances.

fRom ThE vERy idEA To SuCCESS

The construction of the first line speed trains is scheduled to start this year in the United States. The project will be realized in the HTT company. Among others, the Zhang Yaoping from the Chinese National Traction Laboratory, the researchers from the Chinese University of the South-West Jiaotong and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who presented the project of a train moving in the tunnel vacuum, will work on the first prototype of such train. Zhang Yaoping ensures that they po-ssess all available technologies, needed for its construction. The first prototype of train is to be ready in 10 years.

ThE idEA of ThE PAST, RAil of ThE fuTuRE

The proposal of the pneumatic railway transport is indeed, not new. The very first idea of this type of transport refers to the 1945 concept of American engineer Robert Goddard. It is known, however, that in that times there was no technology

necessary to implement the idea. Besides, the civilization of fossil fuels was not interested in innovative and low-carbon ideas, that were straight from science fiction. According to the data available in the ET3 company, such a solution will con-sume 50 times less energy than typical electric trains and will be about 10 times cheaper in use than the high-speed railway vehicle. Therefore, this solution is very prospective.

The security measures in the pneumatic transport will have to be at the highest technological level. Monitoring of transportation conditions, acceleration and g-force sca-le associated with it, will have to be continuous. Similarly, when it comes to the passengers of this mode of transport, it is demanded that the transport capsule and each of the seats installed, are equipped with the aforementioned Gre-en Logger that provides the possibility of measuring the level of the sound, pressure, position, tilting, g-force and many others. This ensures the ongoing analysis of trans-portation and the ability to appropriately respond to dan-gerous situations. In an interview concerning the Hyperlo-op concept, Elon Musk said that the safety systems would be at the highest level, so as to ensure absolute reliability and the absence of any risk to users and third parties.

PoliSh ACCEnT

The Polish scientists also started to work on the design and build the Hyperloop prototype. A team of engineers from the Warsaw University of Technology, which also jo-ined the experts of Wroclaw University of Technology and the representatives of design firms, is working under the guidance of prof. Janusz Piechna. They intend to win the competition on innovation organized by Elon Musk, and at the moment, they managed to reach the final of that con-test. They have a good chance, although the competition is huge. The Poles raised the finance on the crowd funding portal and managed to build a prototype of Hyperloop. Participation or victory in the competition, means that part of the Polish engineering thought will be used in the con-struction of the project. If they win the contest, they will take part in the creation of perhaps the most interesting mode of transport in this century.

The first ultra-fast train will be built in 2016 and the line will connect Los Angeles with San Francisco, allowing pe-ople to cover this 500-kilometer distance in about 35 mi-nutes. Does this mean the beginning of the great railway revolution? The time will give the answer to this question. Who knows, maybe people will travel from Warsaw to Ber-lin in metal pipes really soon, moving from place to place in an incredibly short period of time.

92

Polish shipbuilding industryreview of the sectorKrzysztof Panek

Recently, Polish shipbuilding industry has been spoken highly of. It is not a surprise since Polish shipyards are successfully fighting for the new orders, increase income, employ new workers and commission new vessels. Currently, the private entities of this industry are doing very well and improve their state over the months. One may warily talk about a boom in the shipbuilding industry. Nowadays, the shipyards represent the highest technical and technological quality. The private sector continues to develop and compete with shipyards from the whole Europe.

The government has decided to take advantage of the good situation on the market and, by new legal solutions, it is going to accelerate its development. These changes will not involve politics, but it will be a set of facilities for running shipyards. The “Bill on activating shipbuilding in-dustry and complementary production” – a new bill for shipyards – includes solutions concerning tax simplifica-tion, incorporation of those firms into special economic zones as well as widening the access to European Union funds. The plans will include law regulations and constra-ins of support received from the European Union.

Rationalizations in paying the VAT tax are expected to make financial liquidity better. Currently, shipyards, whi-le buying materials for production, pay VAT tax – 23%- which they get back from the country after finishing the production. After certain changes the shipyards controlled by the program would not have to pay VAT while issuing an invoice for concretely set materials. Another interesting change is the possibility to widen or create Special Econo-mical Zones in the shipyards’ areas. This idea is thought to lower the costs of building; it will also let the investors employ more workers, which will probably help to increase the efficiency. The shipyards are to make a choice betwe-en paying CIT or flat, 1% tax from the value of the sold production. These changes will probably let the owners give about five thousand of new working places and incre-ase the flow of the capital by one-fourth. The resolution is going to be accepted even this year, as to come into life on the 1st of the January 2017.

Polish shipbuilding sector has overhauled the global cut-ting edge long time ago. Modern business management and many innovations are the most important features of this sector. The shipyards concerned with building new

types of ships, even the specialist ones. Their chance lies in modern innovations, not in building huge and expen-sive ships. Building smaller, but very modern vessels se-ems to be more valuable than technologically – obsolete colossuses. Considering the industry in terms of the cost of building one kilogram of the vessel, currently the quali-ty of Polish shipyards’ products is similar to the costs of producing the most luxurious cars. Because of old-establi-shed, wide experience and huge base, they can orientate themselves to realization of even the most complicated tasks. Nowadays, building for the maritime sector is ba-sed on implementation of the elaborate electronic faci-lities and modern solutions. Thanks to this fact many of them have already received certain orders for 2017 and 2018 what constitutes a sign of the quality and custo-mers’ trust. Of course many of the modern solutions are brought from the military sector. Polish shipyards, thanks to the cooperation with Polish Armaments Group and the Ministry of National Defense, develop the production of patrol vessels with the functions of destroying the mines and making our coast safe. The most important trades for this Group are: munition, off-shore, new technologies and real estates. What is more, Polish Armaments Group has many dockyards, which are able to produce any type of ships, vessels and maritime infrastructure for the civil and military use.

There are many companies that PGZ consists of. Mariti-me Refurbishment Shipyard Gryfia is placed in Szczecin and Świnoujście, takes care of the services including re-novation, refurbishment, building new ships, emergency rebuilds and surveys. It employs 515 workers. MSR Gry-fia services different types and sizes of the ships – the big trade ones, as well as the passenger ferries, specialist multitasking vessels, tugs and yachts. It also develops the


phot. Shutterstock

94

installations which desulfurize the ships’ fumes. Moreover, the company produces some steel constructions for the offshore sector. Refurbishment Shipyard Nauta, produc-tion and rebuilding company set in the port in Gdynia, takes part in many extremely complex rebuilds, refurbish-ments and creating civil and military vessels.

Apart from that, in September 2015 Polish Armaments Group tried to seize Shipyards of the Navy, which is places in the same port as Nauta, but takes care mostly of making Polish Navy safe and building new vessels for it. What is more, it commands the full technical base for rebuilds, se-rvices and building some other vessels. This shipyard has been – unfortunately – in financial trouble for a few years. Nevertheless, it did not stop its activity and keeps building and renovating many various vessels. Nowadays, this do-ckyard deals with refreshing and servicing Polish submari-nes and is about to finish the future pride of Polish Navy – the patrolling ship ORP “Ślązak”. Apart from that, this company services the civil sector by building, refurbishing of the vessels and offshore constructing. Seizing Shipyards of Polish navy will definitely widen the abilities of PAG, de-spite the fact that this Group already represents promising potential in rebuilding and producing ships.

PGZ was invited by the Ministry of National Defense to the unassisted realization of two projects: “Czapla” and “Miecznik”. These are the projects of building new and very modern types of military vessels for Polish Navy. The goal is to build six vessels. Two new types of them seem to be quite similar to each other; the significant difference lies in the module construction, simplifying fast adjustment of the vessel to the demands of the fighting field and exact task. They will provide pad and hangar for choppers, slip for assault boats and the possibility to use certain appara-tus and unmanned boats. Depending on the version, they will be powered by two or four engines. Both of the pro-jects are to have the load displacement higher than 2645 t and the opportunity of further modernization and deve-lopment while utilized. They will be built with use of the technology invisible for the radars, commanded with the most modern arms and electronic apparatuses. The pro-jects of the corvette “Miecznik” and patrolling ship “Cza-pla” will be the greatest munition orders for Polish Navy.

In April 2014, rebuilding shipyard started the production of the first destroyer of mines from Kormoran II series. The agreement about building three of these vessels, worth PLN 1.5 billion, was signed in September 2013. This ship is to be given to Navy by the end of 2016, the next two ones – in 2019 and 2022, respectively.

Another innovational, already civil, projects put into sea in Polish shipyards in 2014 are the tugs with hybrid power. They are the first ones of this type in the world. The tugs are widely used closed to the coast and in the ports – that is the reason why the use of electric and combustion engi-nes reduces the pollution of air and water. This vessels use combustion engines only when necessary, for the most of the time they use electric energy stored in accumulators. These projects were entirely set in Poland and based on the most modern global standards. The fact that building of such type of vessels and many other ones is already possi-ble in Polish shipyards, serves as a proof of the modernity of this industry in Poland.

The detritus of Shipyard in Szczecin consists of many dif-ferent companies and smaller dockyards, which are in charge of various projects – rebuilding, building and steel constructions. The biggest one is already mentioned, MSR Gryfia. However, one of the more interesting ones is Alu-mare. This small shipyard builds fuselages, superstructure and offshore constructions only from aluminum. It speciali-zing also in rebuilding of vessels from aluminum.

Another interesting one is Hullkon, which built the prototy-pe ferry powered by LNG gas. Hullkon launches from two to three vessels yearly, cooperating with the ship owners and shipyards from Germany, Holland, Denmark or Nor-way. It builds the ships appropriate for searching oil and huge ocean-going cutters.

Finomar builds the vessels up to 100m long. This shipy-ard can boast of building ferries, tankers, punts, pontoons, servicing and fishing boats. Finomar employs about 200 people as a staff and cooperates with German receivers and shipyards in Tri-City.

Partner shipyard is also the remnant from Shipyards in Szczecin, placed in Police. In the last 10 years, Partner has built more than 50 vessels and in the better period even ten per annum – container ships, tankers, punts, common vessels and dredgers. The company is able to make the ships up to 120m long and 6. 5 thousand DWT of tonnage.

yAChT induSTRy

It is hard to say whether the trade of producing small ves-sels will be included into the forthcoming law changes, as they are not mentioned in the new announcement, which prioritizes big economical entities. Possibly, this is caused by the fact that the shipbuilding industry in Poland is enti-rely self-sufficient and does not require any help from the


country. The volume of shipbuilding market is estimated to be even ten times bigger than yacht building. However, this second shipbuilding trade means a lot on this market. The value of ships export is 12.5 times bigger than the value of yachts export.

Poland has become a leader in building small and middle – sized yachts. In 2015 17-20 thousand of yachts were pro-duced. The production potential of this sector is estimated for 22 thousand of yachts yearly – that is Poland used to produce just before the global crisis in 2008-2009. Only 5% of vessels stays in Poland, the rest of them is ordered and send to other countries. Poland tend to produce mostly cruisers with outboard engines from 6 to 10 meters. Our export pride is the production of smaller cruisers up to 9 meters. These vessels are about 50% of the export among EU and 30% export into the countries from outside EU. In this category, the only competitor can be yacht industry in USA. The most common directions of export are We-stern Europe, Scandinavia, Mediterranean countries, USA and Russia. The value of boats and yachts sold in our coun-try reaches nearly EUR 1 billion yearly. The owners of the companies estimate, that the growth in production takes approximately about 5% per annum. It is thought that sel-ling the yachts responsible for 0.15% of the value of whole Polish export. They also claim that there are more and more Polish and foreign customers and the selling markets keep the tendency of widening.

Every year, on the Polish coast and at the lakes boats and yachts are used more than 200 000 thousand people. The-re are about 60 000 different vessels in Poland. Most of them are sailboats and cruiser appropriate for inland sailing. All of them need berths, repositories for winter and service, also this connected with engine. Apart from the production market and selling the new products, there is also the huge

service market of smaller vessels. In this sector, there are about 900 companies, including yacht shipyards, producers of accessories, dealers’ networks, waterscapes, charter and touristic companies, accommodation places. The yachts are usually produced from scratch, so Polish yacht buil-ding does not consist only of the production of the whole vessels. It is also the huge trade of units. Most of them are the companies in charge of production and selling the accessories, in majority the middle – sized ones with gre-at development capital. They are specialized in designing high – quality accessories, such as sails, metal accessories, padding, furniture, electronic devices and elements from polycarbonate or wood. Poland is the leader in motorboat industry. As it comes to the quality of Polish shipyards, it can be considered as the first league and real leader in the category of smaller yachts.

The crisis in 2008-2009 also significantly affected the shipbuilding market. Many foreign companies of the world--renowned class faced bankruptcy or were sold. Although there was a recession in Poland, none of the companies finished their activity or changed the owner. As a result of the smaller amount of orders the shipyards curbed the pro-duction and were forced to relieve some staff members, but they did not stopped their activity. Since 2010, the amount of production and the quantity of offered models has been increasing. Based on it, Polish market seems to be stable and beneficial. The companies survived the cri-sis, nowadays they are in growth phase. Apart from that, reducing the amount of companies at the European market influenced the demand for new products in a positive way. It can be said that currently Polish yacht industry has even more orders than it can produce – and it is always a good sign for the future.

phot. Shutterstock

96

investment service CenterKrzysztof Kuberski

In recent years, an empowered investment activity has been noticed in Poland, as well as dy-namic action among Polish investors and entrepreneurs in EU, the Middle East and Far Eastern countries. This process is highly supported by international economy and open European mar-ket and a mass of economic agreements submitted by the Polish government with the Middle East countries, which opened new markets. Transfer of innovative technologies, in Europe and in other regions of the world, plays a prominent role, for it is the developed web of technical and economic turnover that determines the degree of investment and economic developing pace.

Entrepreneurs looking for funds to develop their branch of activity, and investors looking for high rate of reimburse-ment from the investments, pay particularly great attention to such sectors as: renewable energy sources, new tech-nologies, IT sector, or in the past – immovable properties. Poland has a lot of economic features which attract the funds and accelerate their development. Nowadays, in or-der to maintain the interest of the investors and to create economic perspectives for years, it is imperative that high innovation level in economy be kept. Currently, economic powers of Western and Middle Eastern countries have in-vested in modern technologies a few decades ago already. Today, industry and knowledge which have been develo-

ped because of that factor allow them to meet with the citizens’ prosperity needs, development of the country and thus the future in many aspects.

Good TEChnoloGy hAS To BE PlACEd in A PRo-PER PlACE And TimE.

Apart from many intensive actions preceded by precise planning, it is relevant that the analysis of development prospects and knowledge on a particular sector’s field of activity in which they would take place be known. A cho-ice of such market sectors in which a technological deve-lopment is elicited by market’s needs is also important. It

phot. Shutterstock


prevents from such situations in which we have a perfect technology or a product, but there is no demand for such. In present world, technology transfer might often lead to permeation of it from one sector of economy to another, so it is essential to have a vast knowledge on the market in which the action is taken and the experience supported by submitted projects.

In order to invest in a safe manner, it is crucial to possess proper business means supported by knowledge and per-fect acquaintance with a particular branch and investment processes. The answer for such is Investment Service Cen-tre. (www.investpl.eu).

whAT iS iSC?

Investment Service Centre (ISC) is an international business structure which unites high class experts. Their task is to fi-nance the investment projects and to search high potential business projects for the investors. It is an accelerator for investment projects and start-ups able to create new tech-nologies of commercial and competitive nature.

mAnnER of oRGAniZATion in invESToR’S SERviCE CEnTRE

In order to optimize the work and to ensure a high-quality care over client’s projects, ISC created six sections, each of which responsible for the next phase of the investing pro-cess. ISC provides complex and professional support in re-alization and further surveillance over selected investment projects, starting with searching for innovative technolo-gical solutions through investment plans realization, and finally by investments finalizing and puing the product on the market.

legal department � Deals with investment projects reviewing in formal-le-

gal terms, in accordance with a legal system being in force on a particular territory. It reviews and cooperates in creating document projects containing Investor’s Se-rvice Centre position.

� Provides legal service over investment projects within support programs.

� Coordinates the legislation process concerning interna-tional and national agreements seing

� Performs formal acting, connected with acquiring intel-lectual property protection

financial department � Deals with surveillance of particular company’s market

sectors and performing actions for maintaining financial stability of the partners.

� Creates financial plans and their amendments projects. It performs monitoring and current investment realiza-tion analysis.

� Creates financial information and periodical financial re-ports from the investments

European funds department � It is responsible for searching for and planning of acqu-

ired support funds for investments projects reported to ISC.

� Performs audits for investments qualified for support acquiring

� Prepares application documentation, supports partners in appeal process and appraising from given support

marketing and Communications department � It carries out information activity directed towards

mass-media � Maintains contact with the media in order to inform the

public swiftly about the aims, tasks and action perfor-med by ISC

� Merchandises the intellectual property of ISC and its partners. Organizes marketing enterprises.

� Creates a coherent identification system of visual ISC and administers it

Technology innovations department � Searches for and selects innovative technological solu-

tions for their implementation � Cooperates with highly developed structure of B+R in

Poland and Technology Parks � Verifies technical projects and evaluates their innova-

tion degree � Shows the expansion directions on international market

Business Security department � It secures and organizes the corporation safety and or-

der � Integrates marketing information security in an entre-

preneurship � Reports the review of threats and vulnerabilities on ad-

verse events � Projects and executes marketing identity with security

service cloud computing

fouR APPliCATion PlATfoRmS

Four cooperating platforms have been set up under ISC action systematizing.

98

investment Projects PlatformThe task of this unit is to acquire funds and to find a pro-ject partner. ISC experts prepare optimal investment offers for entrepreneurs looking for capital, or looking for high business potential projects for the investors. The advance-ment of the projects does not play a grand role – a more important factor is its prospective value and high reimbur-sement rate of the investment. After undertaken analy-ses of economic market in Poland and in countries which economically attractive, the most stable and the fastest developing regions and branches are chosen. The experts of the Centre are accurately analyzing the market have di-stinguished the sectors of broad investment prospects.

The four key fields of interest for ISC specialists are: � Passive and plus energy housing, which means energy-

-saving building and those which can lead the overa-bundant amount of generated energy to the transmis-sion network, thus improving the energy balance. The demand for this solution was enforced as a sort of di-rective, which obliges all member countries to execute an obligation in 2021 which states that all newly built constructions shall be nearly zero energy use objects. The aforementioned field includes: innovative construc-tion technologies, weatherization and thermal systems, door and window carpentry, plus energy materials and devices producing thermal and electrical energy.

� Renewable power engineering. Renewable energy so-urces are becoming an element essential to maintain the world’s energy balance. Gradual depletion of co-nventional power sources leads to the need of use of innovative technologies based on on acquiring energy from renewable sources on which ISC concentrates their attention.

� low-emission transport. Just as in power engineering sector, a revolution in this branch is being made, which is to replace combustion-powered vehicles with elec-tric and hybrid ones. They will contribute to the incre-ase of energy independence and the reduction of gre-enhouse gases emission. The field of interest includes not only factory-made electric cars, but the conversion of combustion cars as well and, what is the most re-levant case in this matter, the development of vehicle loading infrastructure.

� iCT market is one of the faster and more stable de-veloping markets in our country. Our specialists from IT sector are highly esteemed in the world. Investment Service Centre is looking for would-be start-ups here, as well as for innovative technological solutions worth investing in. In the field of interest of Investment Servi-ce Centre there are also projects included from follo-wing areas:

� financial products and services are a vast area of the entire financial market. ISC focuses mainly on invest-


ment projects realization as a result of proposed co-operation which includes introducing unique systems of micropayment or multisystems on which the de-mand is constantly increasing.

� waste management. The amount of waste produced by mankind is increasing every year. ISC promotes de-velopment of projects which are to increase the amo-unt of recycled wastes. Those, when stored, threaten the natural environment and human health. Such solu-tions would allow an absolute disability of wastes or to use them as a source of energy.

� military technology is a grand resource of innovation implemented in an organized and precise manner. ISC experts follow the development of Polish arms, ship-building and aviation industry, seeing a chance for a development of profitable projects.

� immovable properties. The value of transactions fina-lized on Polish property market in 2015 exceeded €4.1 billion. ISC being an accelerator for innovative projects possesses knowledge and experience crucial to loca-ting the capital in lands and immovable properties.

� Technological innovations. The implementation of new goods production or improvement of existing ones, opening new market by introducing a product or a service unavailable earlier, applying a new way of sale, or finally implementing new distribution and orga-nization. Such projects are the field of interest for ISC experts.

� medical and recreation tourism. It is an important are of economic activity, and a relevant branch of social activity at the same time. Poland, on the other hand, is becoming more and more eagerly visited country by tourists. Rates of hotel accommodation use being con-stantly improving every year encourage to invest in this part of the market, and investments in this sector are characteristic for their limited risk and allow to genera-te relatively high income.

� food market. Poland has got rich traditions in produ-cing regional food and great possibilities for producing healthy and eco food. The potential of this branch has not been used entirely yet.

� medicine. The emphasis is put on tele-medicine – an innovative form of providing medical treatment and se-rvice, binding the elements of medicine and telemetry, aesthetic medicine and cosmetology altogether.

� Culture and art. It has been always a field and a chance for increasing the capital. What is important, the art market prices are not vulnerable on crises and financial problems of economy. A well-directed purchase stra-tegy might ensure a high rate of investment reimbur-sement.

The second investment platform is:

Start-up Platform. Poland is currently taking its direction towards innovation. Thanks to the governmental project “Start in Poland”, tech-nological initiatives with high economic prospects would be supported. The continuation of Poland’s development with promoting the inventions of new technologies would allow to implement modern solutions invented and pro-duced in our country in a short time. However, the funds could be also gathered outside Poland. It would increase the economic competitiveness and stability of the country and improve the quality of Poles’ lives. Our country has in-vested in innovations for many years and it achieves many successes on this very field. Nowadays, the project pre-sented below is not only the greatest entrepreneurship in this branch in Poland, but also in Europe. In the immediate future, Poland would have great financing possibilities of start-up programs available.

ISC, with the Start-up Platform’s help, gains new appli-cations and conducts acceleration programs for start-up units. The Platform deals with the key start-up accelera-tion process, which means it helps gathers the capital, re-commends projects for financing from EU funds and leads to product’s commercializing. Each project, no matter what its state of advancement, receives access to infrastructure, mentoring, coaching and all other services necessary to de-velopa new business concept. Cooperating with economic partners and local authorities, Special Economy Zones, En-trepreneurship Incubators, ISC provides constant support and the highest service quality in terms of start-up idea development, to the state of a full shaping of the busi-ness with a renowned position on the market. The offer is also directed to those who seek funds for developing. ISC helps verifying and spreading the idea, creating a business and marketing plan of implementing it to the market, and most important, finalizing current and investment needs of a young entrepreneur. It also recommends projects for fi-nancing from EU funds. In addition, ISC cooperates with international entrepreneurship incubators, located in such places as: the US, China and United Arab Emirates.

union Grant Platform. Using European Grants increases the profitability of eve-ry investment. Investment Service Centre has already ful-filled about 150 projects with the use of EU grants. ISC specialists, basing on their vast knowledge and experience, recommend and acquire EU funds for the projects. They are an invaluable help for units searching for that kind of financing, being the link binding the capital with the inve-

100

stors and start-ups looking for them. Under the support for entrepreneurs searching for funds, it warrants a complete service in project and finance analysis and, what is impor-tant, in planned projects profitability area. ISC also offers performing a detailed verification of all available possible sources of financing, offering not one but several available options. No matter if the grant comes from EU funds or from another support program ensuring the achievement of pursued goal, one can count on ISC’s help without any fear of high service costs- for ISC payment depends on the investment’s success.

Economy missions and fairs Platform. Every new technology needs promoting, and the aim of such action is to make the subjects, which are able to make its expansion easier, feel interested and to attract the po-tential buyers with a ready product. Under Economy Mis-sions and Fairs Platform, experts make a selection adequate to the needs of a selected client of fair programs or econo-my missions. ISC uses it as an element of a future product image creation and its position in the market. Marketing Department conducts proper analyses and plans, which are being estimated, and because of which Investment Se-

rvice Centre may match the grant programs properly. The platform also shares the set and the schedule of the most important fair-conference branch events from Europe and all over the world. The base is strictly bound to companies which cooperate with ISC and is being constantly updated. ISC experts, thanks to their many years of experience in their fields possess a broad spectrum of business contacts, thanks to which the process of cooperation with the event organizers is far more shorter and stripped of unnecessary formalities.

Investment Service Centre is ready to serve with afore-mentioned help and support to all the entrepreneurs who are interested in acquiring the funds or a start-up unit. The condition for participating in such a project is to possess an interesting or innovative project with wide possibilities and market prospects. All the investments realized under ISC create a huge business potential thanks to high profitability and effective management of investment risks as well as the financial one. The ISC specialists accompany their part-ners during all the steps of their investment realization. All the projects are to be lodged at Investment Service Centre website: www.invest.pl/eu.


MulticardInnovativetechnologiesKrzysztof Panek

Electronic non-cash payment systems have been used since the 70s, but their true development is dated 21st century, along with the IT advancement. Nowadays, performing an electronic payment is faster, safer and easier than cash transaction. A revolution in payments still occurs and – as the experts estimate – it will last for next two decades. It is highly probable that people would abandon cash payment in everyday transactions and they would use the electronic ones instead. Credit cards are a commonplaceness. We are constantly getting more and more credit, loyalty, program or discount cards in our wallets, while customer’s identification systems are being constantly improved at the same time. The next possible step in techno-logy evolving would be the unification and systematization of all the technology in a one clear system. A new pattern of work of such system must be open for deve-lopment, for it is difficult to define what innovations new technology would bring.

The newest trends in mobile technology advancement are being directed by solutions of that kind towards the structures placed in a cloud system. A secured system, and first and fore-most one that unifies particular, not necessarily payment, tools,

is a perfect example for innovative entrepreneurships being worth of investment. Multicard, also known as Multiplatform, is a completely new, extremely functional and pioneer financial medium and a means for payment implementation.

102

mulTiCARd – All in 1

The digital revolution enters far more wide fields, changing almost all economy and investment pillars. Banking which gives the customers the possibility of using a full spectrum of services, using both conventional and digital channels of bank access to them, is a strong trend. A smartphone, tablet, PC, call-centre, ATM machine or finally direct con-tact with the advisor in a selected bank unit, should offer the same scope of services and products which the bank has in its offer to the customer. Multicard is an innovative solution of that kind, which is a combination of outsource, SmartPay transaction and loyalty or access systems and is a novelty which was missed on the Polish market thus far.

Multicard is a convenience not only for businessmen – that sort of solution is geing its approval in case of every elec-tronic card user and it makes performing everyday basis activities easier: from shopping to binding all the essential information useful f.ex. during travels, as tickets, loyalty cards, basic medical data or documents.

An extremely important issue of multiplexing, which means focusing various media in one medium, is security. Technologies used in Multicard projecting increase the security of payment transactions by cryptographic card authorization. Using modern technologies unables forging cards and enriches interoperational systems in verification

and authorization functions. Encoding the data allows not only for safe using of Multicard itself, but it also allows that the very system is available portably – via specially designed and created applications.

Multicard may fulfill basic identification functions for administrative documents, loyalty card or a credit one, combining all the applications of functioning documents, payment means and transaction conveniences within. The card’s security system and its highly specialized technological solutions enable its safe manner of storing identification data of its owner.

Furthermore, the Multicard designers inform that the card may be used as a sort of a “dog tag”, storing such information as: blood type or the information about the substances which a person is allergic to. Such prospect gives broad possibilities, for in life-threatening situations, a doctor or a lifeguard could perform a rescue action much faster than it is done today, thus eliminating the threats from drug applying, to which a patient might be allergic, or identifying a substance which could cause an allergic reaction.

It was also emulated in mobile phones. Its high security standard allows to use most of the products available on market (documents, credit cards, city cards, loyalty cards, IDs). This solution gives us the comfort of use, and does


not weaken the importance of previous plastic solutions – on the contrary, empowering their functionality.

Multicard is a project which is still being under construc-tion. This venture still requires investment, programming and banking support, and improvements in case of admi-nistrative branch, f. in. in implementing city travel cards or improvements related to mobility progression and tech-nology in urbanistic centres. It is imperative to focus on the development of local authorities’ computerization in order to make the administration operating systems able to serve and implement that kind of project. In fact, the only limitation, which could be encountered while working on that sort of entrepreneurship, is human imagination. During the construction of such vast and multi-leveled system, governmental and administrative support is extre-mely relevant. Multicard’s innovation and the market’s demand for the possibilities it offers make it an area of a significant potential.

GREEnid ACCounT – SimPliCiTy And ConvEniEnCE

Another very important, if not the most important element of Multicard is GreenID account – a superordinate appli-cation which shares logging and authorizing processes with Multicard customers. GreenID is a unique ID of each available card, enabling and answering to all the accounts’ binding with the application which manages them.

The processes of authorization and logging, as well as the apps and accounts’ binding has a high security priority because of the data weight. Every single demand sent from the Account to the application and the other way around goes through a number of security protocols – in order to ensure the process’s safety and prevent from any break-in attempts.

All these factors guarantee that the data and the means collected on Multicard are completely safe. However, the works on product’s development are still in progress, as the system designer informs, a number of experts in the fields of IT and banking are constantly working on the system’s development, announcing new possibilities of Multicard and GreeID account.

A unique identification number ensures complete safety of performed authorizations, and logging security system pro-vides the owner uninhibited and danger-free access to bank or loyalty accounts. The GreenID account contains several different functions within, including access to a number of additional GreenTeam apps for everyday activities.

SmARTPAy – univERSAl TRAnSACTion SySTEm

Multicard designers are also the authors of innovative trans-action systems called SmartPay, which are the response for the increasing market demands. Multicard combined with SmartPay is an intelligent electronic card, based on advanced and secure systems. Closed, properly secured structure integrates all the outer systems within, which is supposed to consolidate the largest number of transaction possibilities in one combined card. The specificity of this solution is conditioned by the needs of today’s society, which demands that creations of modern technology offer vast spectrum of possibilities in affordable and functional – and minimalistic alike – form. The whole system along with the SmartPay application works within the GreenCloud system which enables sending and storing data in outer server environment (namely in a ‘cloud’). SmartPay deals with two main functional packages: MyWallet (integrated payment systems) and MyAccounts (integrated bank, credit and loyalty accounts).

SmartPay applications give the possibility of managing all the functions which are offered by the system, such as money transfer realization, bank account balance verifi-cation, account history, etc. This application is compatible with such systems like Android, OS and Windows.

The apps available within the cloud are dedicated to small and big businesses and they can be used f. in. as an activity empowering factor, as it happens in case of Multicard. The very essence of this system and the innovation designed by its experts is the fact that Smart Pay system was invented as a new standard of authorizations between customer, a terminal and a bank. Such a solution may revolutionize the market, thus improving non-cash payment transfers.

SmARThElP – inTElliGEnT hElP

According to the Central Statistical Office, the unaltered structure of social support is, in some cases, rather deepe-ning poverty than helping to get out of it. The important thing is that the national institutions, as well as units con-nected with social benefit support implement a balanced system of funds monitoring. The response for the donors’ needs, number of whom may increase by 30% according to the statistics (provided that the funds’ proper use be ensured) is an intelligent system of social care with use of modern IT means, which would additionally allow commu-nication of the supporting unit and the beneficiary. What is more, the computerization of this segment allows to contact faster and easier of proper persons with a proper

104

institution. Long queues and complicated formalities would be replaced by a specially constructed system containing all the necessary information and simplifications. That type of platform would help a person interested in applications of all kind and would clearly describe where to look for help in case of particular accidents step by step. In order to make the system base on mutual advantage, people in need would have access to specially configured, personal accounts which would help with identifying. The system would allow to use the money transferred to the card, thanks to which the financial support would reach the most needy families, which would use the funds in accor-dance with their purpose. Shopping would be realized in selected store chains, which would join the SmartHelp program – an intelligent social support. Salesmen would use a unique sale system supporting the whole custo-mer-salesman relations process, which – in contrast to standard systems – requires only a cash register and a tablet with the proper application.

This kind of settlement system between the registered card users and store chains would allow to verify the sort of pro-ducts which are needed most, which would eventually help with arrangement of all kinds of donations for the poorest families. SmartHelp is an innovative way for preparing the most beneficial social programs, f. ex. unemployment or 500+ benefits. Such system implementation would show the way of helping people in need, limiting the number of

state care abuse cases. The expenses control for social support would be thereby more effective.

Another example of using the SmartHelp system is the advanced support system for refugees, which would solve the actual European problems, namely defining and nor-malizing of help for the immigrants. The system designed by SmartPay company would help to eliminate the threat of inaccurate or insufficient support, and it would be the medium between the social institutions and those in need of help or care. It would also be a means for avoiding unnecessary formalities. The use of the system is very versatile, but undoubtedly the social profits coming from its use would be great. This solution would be a big simpli-fication for both parties. For a card user – because he or she would, in a simple manner, check the available support funds, and help would come to him or her faster and it would be suited better to his or her current situation, as for the benefit-paying party – because of the possibility of easy and clear order of all necessary data and because of fewer formalities while paying benefits. It would be possible thanks to specially invented application, which would have the information connected with the expenses of card users as well as notifications for donors.

The application allows to manage all functions which SmartPay has to offer, in which money transfers realization, verification of bank account balance or credit applications


are included. Thanks to cooperation with such systems as Android, OS and Windows it is easy in use and clear and user-friendly.

GREEn4you - loyAlTy SySTEm

SmartPay system is equipped with a loyalty system called Green4You, which is a tool that assigns all available disco-unt and loyalty systems to the card, entitled to specific reliefs. The structure which integrates loyalty programs is responsible for it, creating one multi-partner system. All the possibilities are cumulated just within one card, which helps to save space in the wallet. All the disco-unts, bargains, offs and acquired points, to which the card owner is entitled, are stacked in a SmartPay’s subsystem – Green4You, being an easily available source of discounts. It is a truly helpful solution from the ecological point of view: producing one, universal card would limit the produc-tion of company blank forms, which means – minimizing the pollution related to acquisition of proper production materials and with the production process itself.

Every institution, store chain, medical facility is welcome to join the Green4You loyalty system. The designer does not forecast any limitations in this process, guaranteeing the card users the highest quality of services for a maximally available price. Green4You Loyalty System is a relevant complementation of the entire service package, and the whole Multicard system, thanks to its functionality and loads of possibilities it stands out with innovation. It is worth mentioning that the loyalty program is constantly being under further advancement. The system’s producer highlights that this program is going to evolve adequately to the needs of customers who use it.

GREEnTEAm – moBilE APPS PACk

An additional element available to Multicard and GreenID users is the GreenTeam applications package situated in and working on innovative calculation cloud system called GreenCloud. It is a set of applications made for Android 4.0+, Windows and IOS platforms, optimally designed and made for supporting everyday activities.

Apps and services included in GreenTeam pack are as follows:

� GreenSOS – automatic rescue system � GreenCars – car fleet management � GreenFamily – family locator � Intelligent house management � Green Energy – project management from RES sector

and house micro-installations systems � GreenPoint – settlements and availability of electric

cars charging points � GreenMed – telemedicine services � GreenNews- the latest world news

The works on a number of apps are still in progress and the pressure on the development is put on recycling and security advancement and expansion of existing services and apps packages. Furthermore, using the GreenCloud resources (calculation cloud) is fully open for developers, allowing them to integrate their application and to share with other users. It gives the possibility of constant impro-vement and project development, and a vast scope of services and apps for everyday activities.

unlimiTEd PoSSiBiliTiES foR dEvEloPERS

Finances and transaction system are the fields in which there is always some place for new, better solutions. Innovations in this branch would mean not only proper functioning of particular processes or better organization of available funds, but first of all it means a successful increase of security level. Today’s market shows that in order to achieve success, one must gain trust of a potential client. Showing his or her own entrepreneurship or com-pany as a profitable and beneficial partner would mean concrete, properly selected security measures in terms of investments, controlling or financial surveillance. These products, which are made for transactions realizing, have to guarantee safety and confidentiality of payments, being an easy tool, available even for the elder generation at the same time.

One thing is certain: new technologies have truly unlimited potential, necessary for increasing demands of the users and the dynamics od today’s market. This is the area, on which there is still much to be done, and the next years would probably be the period in which we will acquaint with many a surprising inventions, which will completely change our reality.

106

European Networks of Technology TransferKatarzyna Anita Piotrowska

In the modern world, people are witnessing the dynamically developing market economy; bigger and bigger share of it lies in advanced technologies. The issue of technology trans-fer becomes an incredibly important element of raising the competitive advantage of the enterprises. The mentioned technology transfer process is differently defined.

According to the most common definition, it includes han-dling exact knowledge and inventions directly to economic practice. The older meaning, based on the patents trade, design patents, licenses and „know-hows”, was ousted by the wider definition, which defines the technology transfer as many forms of popularizing the innovations, technical education and stages of implementing it into the sphere of production activity. The boundary between the sector of science and research and the procedure of fabrication keeps blurring.

Currently, the technology transfer means also the coopera-tion of European clusters, which is to counteract the Euro-pean and non-EU economies. The partners in cooperation are, in many different combinations, scientific and research institutions as well as big, middle-size and small enterprises. The participants of the platforms may include 325 entities, which are located in 18 countries, including 21 large inter-national clusters. The entity that leads to unification of these activities from the entire Europe - is EGTA. European Green Technology Alliance is the European platform for technolo-gy transfer and knowledge about market and technological trends, which also contains some remarks and examples of good praxis in technology transfer. This base offers also in-novational solutions in many important fields of global eco-nomy and contains the profiles of scientists and experts who directly cooperate with the initiators of the projects. As the members of EGTA, they coordinate particular operations; they are also present while discussing the conceptions and offer their help in implementing the ideas.

The activities of EGTA are divided into 6 parts in which we take actions, aiming in implementation of technologically better solutions into economical structures. They include both universal areas connected with food, health, transport and the fields incredibly important for economy and busi-ness.

inTERnET of ThinGS

Internet of Things (IoT)- is all about data. According to the estimation of Cisco in Global Cloud Index Study, by 2018 IoT will produce more than 400 Zettabytes of data, which means colossal business changes. This phenomenon can be explained by snow-ball effect: we attach higher and higher amount of things into the global network, which things process growing amount of information. But the core of IoT – which is even now described as “Internet of the future” – lies not only in the devices, but in their po-tential – storing of information. The initiator of disruptive project connected with use of IoT is South Korea, which built first in the world smart city on the island designed from 500 million tons of sand. “The city of future” is to become a metropolis of business and is called in this way due to millions of sensors available everywhere: on the streets, in schools, in office blocks and houses. This ec-centric project, interpreted by many as the utopia of the modern world, will go down in history as the precursor of ultramodern business metropolis.

The key technologies, which significantly influence our lifestyle, work and studying

are mobile technologies, which swayed also as trivial activities as shopping or driving a car. Even the industrial revolution did not cause such a radical explosion in techno-logical innovations and economical growth all over the world. Nearly all of the funda-

mental human activities have been changed or even revolutionized by telephonic tech-nology. Following the Cisco’s report “Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data traffic Forecast Update, 2011-2016” in 2016 the


phot. Shutterstock

108

number of mobile devices connected to Internet will be higher than the number of Earth’s inhabitants. Mobile phone is not

only the industry itself. It is also the base for excellent opportunities.

GreenCloud, as a part of the Smart IT Cluster technology constitutes a platform that receives data from a user de-vice, and in a standardized way, provides that data to a user-selected applications. It currently presents a respon-se to the users’ expectations of mobile technology, on the threshold of the information revolution. Its technology provides individuals with affordable cost of processing, storing and analyzing streams of „Big Data”, generated by sensors, mobile computers, and RFID readers. Is a system that could adapt to any application, introduced by the ad-ministrator or user. It is completely open to new applica-tions and business developers of all kinds.

One of the most important motive forces of new pro-ducts’ development are certain business demands, inclu-ding constant quest for new and enhanced ways of saving both money and time. Many of the improvements and cheap alternatives for present systems used in industry are offered by the virtual reality. It has huge influence on many significant fields, including stock exchange, informa-tion management, virtual projects or virtual prototyping. As information can be made available earlier and more ef-ficiently, companies have better control over the projects. Virtual reality for many smaller companies, huge corpora-tions and for private investors seems to be a chance for making the quality of work better. All of them can lower the costs, increase the efficiency and transmit the data faster thanks to this idea.

The most significant for the companies is also the idea of gamification. HR leaders all over the world came to conc-lusion, that gamification is one of the most exciting new conceptions. The scientists discovered that playing games leads to releasing dopamine – neurotransmitter responsi-ble for emotional processes, kinesthetic coordination and motivation connected with waiting for the reward. In the-se games reward system is molded properly, as to create certain customs among the participants, similar to these initiated by natural goods in environment – e.g. food or water. The game becomes an award by itself. This can be called and ideal motivation technique, widely used by cor-porations to reach higher efficiency of their employees, acceleration in realization of most important tasks and boost morale.hEAlTh

The European population is geing older extremely fast – that is way one of the most important issues is to provide appropriate health care. Apart from new medical techno-logies, such as nanotechnology and biotechnology, there is wide range of information and telecommunication tech-nologies which lead to faster and more efficient explora-tion of data. Because of these results, the patients are offered quicker and better treatments.

GreenMed is an integrated system of monitoring and ar-chiving of patient status, using the dynamic preview of data from telemedical sensors. The application is based on proprietary “cloudy” system - GreenCloud (see p.40). It allows one to collect, store and send data and vital signs of the patient on a distance. All medical information is transmitted to the server at specified time intervals, and stored, so that the patient, the doctor or the patient’s fa-mily can have easy access to them.

GreenMed possesses four main functions: � Patient Monitoring - Modern diagnostics in real time; � Search Assistance - interactive map, that includes ho-

spitals, medical centers and pharmacies; � Patient Card – view the archived general and speciali-

zed test results, referrals and prescriptions; � On-line diagnostics - medical consultation with the

specialist.

Telemonitoring of bodily functions or consultations with a doctor via Internet – for many people still sounds unre-

phot. Shutterstock


alistically, but telemedicine seems to be an integral and inevitable part of the future. More and more long-lasting ailments and diminishing amount of health care workers are the challenges of today’s world. Telemedicine, as a complementary way of supplying health services, can become an efficient solution.

Medical nanotechnology is also very important, since thanks to it, medical accessories becoming increasingly cheaper and efficient; tests and diagnosis - much rele-vant, which allows to quickly react on illness. Small com-puters and other accessories necessary for implantation, allow us to constantly monitor the health and identify the symptoms of illness in a very early phase. Thanks to it, the treatment becomes cheaper, more effective and accessible for higher number of people.

Recently one of the most important deployments of bio-technology is its use in providing medical treatments. Nowadays the applications of biotechnology in medicine and fields connected with health care include pharma-cogenomics, genetic tests and genetic treatment. Re-cent biotechnology is widely used in inventing vaccines and new medicines, as well as for treating an illness and making organs for transplantations. Because of its wide specification, it constitutes a chance for millions of pe-ople, whose organisms do not react on standard ways of treatment.

low EmiSSion TRAnSPoRT

Currently, transport is dominated by cars, being con-sidered as the most convenient way of transport. The development of motorization is a positive sign from the economical point of view, but it also affects natural envi-ronment in a negative way. Road transport is the second largest source of greenhouse gases emission, responsi-ble for 12% of the whole emission of carbon dioxide. The latest technological solutions in this field are important measures towards balanced, safe transport which could be based on ecological fuels and electric vehicles. It will also significantly increase the energy independence of particular countries.

An example of the technology that is currently functio-ning on the EGTA platform, is the technology of conver-sion of internal combustion vehicles to electric technolo-gy. It was created by the team of specialists from Green Taxi company in cooperation with the team of experts from Green Convert LLC. It was combined with car- sha-ring fleets of electric cars, which allows enterprises to

get easy access the necessary vehicles, without incurring very high costs of their purchase.

Alternative fuels are both ecologically and economically beneficial solutions, as they lower the dependence on the import of oil. Internal production of ethanol from maize and other plants emits lower amount of greenho-use gases than conventional fuels; biodiesel produced from vegetable oil and animal fat usually emits less pol-lution of air than petroleum diesel. Also pure hydrogen used while powering fuel cells is not detrimental for the environment.

The perfect examples of realization of green public transport are these cities, which combine public trans-port with innovational system of bikes and electric bikes rentals. In the future this mechanism could be integrated addition to public transport, based on the same system of urban charters, bus and tram stops. The example of alternative mobility is also carsharing of electric and hy-brid cars, which are a good solution for the drivers also because of the lack of responsibilities connected with

phot. Shutterstock

110

maintaining the vehicle: its storage and technical super-vision.

REnEwABlE EnERGy

Diversification of energy sources, improvement of the energetic efficiency and reaching energy independence are now the strategic aims in highly developed countries and the main priorities in EU programs. One of the re-asons for which they should be implemented as soon as possible is the huge exploitation of conventional energy sources, such as petroleum and coal. Their exploitation is time-consuming and expensive, what is more – it has negative impact on the environment. Another important thing that induces to reduce the use of these materials are increasing costs of oil, constantly running down. Ac-cording to the latest research it is possible that the hu-manity will suffer from the lack of petroleum in 40 years. That is why reaching the stable economical growth de-velopment of innovational energy resources is so impor-tant.

One of very few low emission technologies which are thought to be increasing on a broad scale is solar energy. Last years brought many improvements in this field, e.g. sudden gain in power and efficiency, as well as deve-lopment of creative business models, which encouraged housing developers to investments in solar systems. Re-ceiving energy from Sun does not create any side effects,

detrimental emissions or impoverishment of natural re-sources; installation of the devices on architectonical objects does not really influence the landscape. Never-theless, constant works on implementing this solution into life on a broad scale is necessary. Despite the fact that sunlight reaches the whole surface of Earth, its li-ghtning is not regular and depends on latitude, season or time of day; the presence of pollution in atmosphere or high nebulosity unable people to use this source of energy efficiently. Nevertheless it is estimated that 20 years of solar installation’s exploitation supporting elec-tric heating will lower the emission of sulfur dioxide by 500 kg and carbon dioxide even by 60 t!1

Small wind power stations are widely used in powering of self-sufficient telecommunication and navigation sys-tems, households and summer houses; they also help in lightening freestanding objects and many other structu-res that are placed far away from the energy network. Small wind generators often cooperate with photovoltaic modules or diesel generators in hybrid systems, which allow implementing unfailing and optimal satisfaction of energy demand. However, as to implement these solu-tions into life, there is a need of numerous research and measurement which should not last shorter than for a year. According to their results in case of turbines that are to be installed, we are able to estimate the amount of potential production of energy from exact area. The best places are the ones, where the frequency of strong

phot. Shutterstock


winds 10-20 m/s is the highest one. New technologies in this field are being developed and appear nearly every year.

GVT - Green Vertical Turbine (or Vertical wind turbine) is an innovative wind turbine with a vertical axis of rotation, which has a number of features, distinguishing it a from other available solutions on the market (for instance, wind turbines with a vertical and horizontal axis). GVT is distin-guished by the technology used, through which the tech-nical parameters of both outclass powers and vertical wind turbines with horizontal axis of rotation. GVT modular wind turbine with a vertical axis of rotation, is made up of, joined together, three meter segments and is configurable in the power range from 20 kW to 500 kW. Powers of GVT are characterized by high efficiency of wind energy, up to 70%, which provides a favorable corelation of price to the ef-fects of power-work and significantly reduces energy costs.

There are also known certain technical, economical and environmental benefits from receiving water energy, which is very important factor contributing to the future com-pilation of energy among the whole world, especially in fast developing countries .These countries have huge and constantly growing demand for electric energy and water

power is the most significant source of renewable energy. It is responsible for about 16,5% of the entire and is con-sidered to be one of the most profitable sources of new generation.

The main role in developing the low emission energy sys-tem is storage of energy. It provides access to reservoirs, necessary in case of break in providing renewable energy. Locally, it can improve the management of distribution networks and lowering the costs. It can also make the implementation of renewable energy resources into the market easier, relieve the efficiency of industry and ener-gy distribution; it can also help to stabilize the prices on energy market, simultaneously providing higher security of energy supply. It can also become an important input into developing smart grid conception on every level of voltage.

AlimEnT And wATER

Modern science provides more and more information about the nourishment in eatables and their influence on human health. Our health prophylaxis is mostly based on preventing the ailments by conscious alimenting. As a result of the consumers’ (more conscious in the area

phot. Shutterstock

112

of nourishment) demand, there is uncountable number of products on the global market that are not only nu-tritious, but also ecological. From the other side, in many countries, due to long-lasting complications, the sector of water is suffering. It makes an increasing problem in the fields of providing water and sanitary services.

There is constant lack of pure, safe water. World Health Organization (WHO) has set international guidelines for drinking water; thanks to them is was found, that more than 1, 1 mld of people have no access to clean water. It is predicted that until 2025 the significant part of world’s population (more than 3, 5 mld of people) will be living in areas with serious lack of water. Even now half of the world’s hospital places is kept by patients suffering from waterborne illnesses. Many of them could have been sa-ved by providing secure technology of desalination and purification of drinking water.

Green water i - ozone water purification Problems with the access to clean and fresh water may be faced in almost all parts of the world. Taking into account the scale of the problem, in order to eliminate it, there must be used a very efficient and cost effective methods of water and wastewater treatment. The method of Gre-en Water I is based on the purification of water by ozone micro-bubbles. This innovative system reduces the ope-rating costs of sewage treatment plants by almost 75%.

Green water ii - an innovative method of desalinationDesalination represents one of the most interesting appli-cations of solar energy. This is a method of desalination of salt water by means of solar radiation. In some parts of our world, the fresh water is represented in a limited amounts. At the same time salt water and strong solar radiation are present in excess. While producing fresh water, it is possible to produce electricity. This solution is environmentally friendly and possess an alternative to conventional systems, powered by fossil fuels. The Green Water II - is independent of the electrical network.

XXI century brought up ailments, caused by poor nutrition. Obesity, metabolic illnesses, ailments of cardiovascular system, diabetes, cancer or problems with immunological system are the ones, for which diet is mostly responsible. Proper change of nutrition, lifestyle and habits is beco-ming the new strategy of treatment. Last years brought also significant development in designing bioactive ingre-dients of functional food, which – due to its beneficial in-fluence on health – is thought to be promising alternative for supplements.

In the last ten years the hot topic of discussions and re-search was also printing the aliment. 3D print offers many potential profits. It seems to be health and safe for the environment solution – it can help convert the alterna-tive ingredients, such as proteins from algae, leaves of beetroots or insects into tasty products. It also makes a possibility to personalize the groceries, thanks to the op-portunity of designing food according to individual needs and preferences.

induSTRy

The idea of converting the modern sector of industry into more efficient and less polluting technologies is the main point of the actual strategy of economical development. The most significant conception is “zero waste”, which me-ans management of the products and recycling process, as to regain all of the materials that can be used again, wi-thout burying or incinerating them. Realizing “zero waste” program is to eliminate the whole delivery into the gro-und, water or air, which are the real danger for the plants’, animals’ and human health. It is also worth considering, that the base of this pro-ecological idea is the global chan-ge of lifestyle and conscious management of rubbish.

“Zero waste” project is also the response for the lack of materials. Innovational materials engineering lets us pro-duce from various substances, including waste materials. Even now there is wide use of waste materials in produc-tion of many makings from building industry and mining. The use of products designed due to innovational techno-logies lets also lower the emission of greenhouse gases. EGTA develops and promotes innovative environmental technology, called Pyroliza. It is a process of depolymeri-zing the plastic to the form of paraffin. They are processed in the plastic waste through the cleavage of the hydrocar-bon chains under the effect of temperature, absence of oxygen and using a catalyst to give a product with novel properties. The final product of the process of catalytic depolymerization is a component of liquid fuels, synthetic paraffin, which is a component of diesel and heating oil substitute. The process can be seen as a waste manage-ment system or as a method of manufacturing high-ener-gy, intermediate for the energy industry. The technology operates in a pressure-sealed mode, without causing any emissions into the air or water. The resulting product is of the highest chemica quality, uniform and constant in terms of physic-chemical indicators. Raw materials are the finely divided waste plastics, shredded vehicle tires, or other types of wastes.


References:

1. Solar energy and its use, energiaodnawialna.net

For the last 15 years European Union has implemented many rules which are to develop the technologies in favor of recycling. These regulations include the establishments about recycling of waste materials and products in electric and electronic devices, vehicles withdrawn from exploita-tion, various packing materials, batteries, waste materials from households, building and demolition industry. The progress in technology, including biotechnology designs new possibilities in management of waste material: both in their incapacitation and reusing. Simultaneously, recycling promotes other important economical and social benefits: support of innovations (e.g. with use of waste materials) and secure access to critical resources. Recycling means a lot in gaining the main aim of European and worldwide po-litics in taking care about environment; it means changing the economy into ecological one, which generates the we-lfare combined with healthy environment for present and future generations.

ThE BRidGE foR nEw SoluTionS

Full use of intellectual potential of scientific institutes and implementing the latest technologies create a chance for fast development of innovational companies and institu-

tions. Implementing the idea of balanced development on a broad scale will require from European and global economies concentrating their attention on technology transfer. That is why so important initiative like European Green technology Alliance was raised. It is to work in favor of developing the economical security of less developed countries, raising the quality of life and the bloom of the balanced development’s idea. Wide knowledge of many experts, innovational projects and expertise in implemen-ting groundbreaking projects make EGTA the significant binder between the world of fast developing technolo-gies and the economical sphere with its demand for new solutions. Technology transfer is not only the alignment of chances and incorporation of the new, business con-ceptions. It is also the chance for making the quality of life better through intelligent economy, which –thanks to technical and scientific amendments – implements scien-tific and development more efficiently, gaining new solu-tion for the old problems.

phot. Shutterstock

114

Carsharing of electric carsand electric municipal public transport as a new face of transportKatarzyna Anita Piotrowska

The increasing problem of traffic jams in agglomerations cannot be completely tackled. It would require an endless expansion of road infrastructure, what is, obviously, impossible. The increasing number of cars requires solutions which would diminish the scale of the problem. The change of communication habits of the citizens or implementation of intel-ligent traffic management systems are well-tried solutions commonly used in majority of the cities.

However, there is still a problem of ecology of the whole transport and its impact on society’s health. Therefore, re-placing combustion engines with electric ones seems to be the most appropriate solution. Everyone knows that the car which is stuck in a traffic approximately for half an hour every day will be a smaller burden if it did not combust the fuel. Hy-brid installations or zero-emission electric cars are also more economical in terms of fuel use and exploitation.

For many years, electric cars have not been given much at-tention due to their small range, high price and small size. The more popular hybrids were in fact combustion cars with addi-tional electric motor. In this type of vehicles, the main task of the electric part was to recover energy from breaking and its

reuse when starting. In hybrids, while driving at a small speed, the combustion engine stops working and the car is powered by the electric motor.

Unquestionable advantage of electric cars is their simple construction. Electric motors have very few movable parts, hence the probability of their damage decreases. From an economical point of view, it is cheap to use – such car can recover energy from breaking, thus prolong its use, for example, in the city. What is more, it is much more cost--efficient to use energy from power plants than to produce oil, transport it to refinery and transform into fuel. Electri-city may be also produced from biomass as well as from renewable resources (e.g. wind energy), unlike combustion

phot. Shutterstock


engine which requires a specific type of fuel. Therefore, our economy would benefit from limited import of the oil and at the same time it would become less subject to lack or higher prices of any type of fossil fuels.

Electric cars have also equally good performance when compared to combustion cars, what can be proved by Te-sla Roadster car. An electric car does not need to have a shifting gear or a clutch. What is more, due to quiet engine operation, it enables “noiseless” traveling as well as conve-nient listening to the music. Unfortunately, electric cars are much more expensive due to, among others, small volume production and high prices of the battery, what causes also higher costs of their repair.

From ecological point of view, excluding combustion pro-cess is a very beneficial and environmentally friendly chan-ge. There is also a problem of batteries which, although safe in use, become a problem after exploitation period. As for now, we do not know cheap and safe methods of recycling or utilizing them.

ElECTRiC PuBliC TRAnSPoRT

Motor drive has become a very tempting vision for mu-nicipal public transport. Nonetheless, one must remember that it is a new idea. The first electric vehicle was introdu-ced already at the end of XIX century. On streets, one can see electric buses more and more often. In November of the previous year, the fleet of MZA [Eng. Municipal Bus Company] was restocked with vehicles with photovoltaic panels. Electricity plays an increasingly important role in cities’ development plans concerning issues of green trans-port. Currently, moves towards e-mobility development are made, among others, by: Gdańsk, Gdynia, Cracow, Toruń, Zielona Góra, Warsaw and Wrocław. Another challenge faced by Poland is the introduction of state, centralized projects encouraging both local governments and private users to buy electric vehicles.

So far, Warsaw has purchased 10 electric buses. Zielona Góra plans to acquire as many as 80 and in the future be-come one of the first cities where public transport will be completely emission-free. Gdynia invests in trolley buses: within the last few years, it modernized 5 tractions and built another 4. Among others, thanks to such solutions, the energy consumption in Gdynia decreased by 23% in 2009-2014. Kraków and Katowice are developing support system for electric car users. Rzeszów and Lublin want to install proper infrastructure of charging stations, which is an important step toward popularization of eco-friendly

transport in Polish cities. Each city has its own challenges and needs related to them. Some have to tackle poor quali-ty of the air or low emission, others high level of congestion and noise.

Apart from public transport, the technology of electric mo-tors can also be used for so called car sharing. This scheme is applied in more than 600 cities all over the world. This offer is especially suitable for clients who sporadically dri-ve cars or would sometimes like to have access to diffe-rent types of cars. The majority of carsharing experts claim that having a car that one does not use every day may be more expensive that renting it. To make the purchase of car pay off, annual mileage should exceed 10 000 kilometres. Obviously, cost-effectiveness of every-day journey is influ-enced by distance that we have to cover and whether we get stuck in a traffic or not. The owned car can be either a gas-guzzling and frequently-breaking down, generating costs means of transport or an economic and durable one. With so many changes, it is difficult to unambiguously de-cide if carsharing is cost-effective for commuting to work every day.

The fleet owners often highlight the fact that such way of road transport would significantly influence decreasing the traffic especially in rush hours. Unfortunately, statistics of Autolib’ indicate that carsharing of electric cars does not reduce the number of vehicles on the roads but makes pu-blic transport passengers use ecological easily accessible cars instead of buses and trams, what results in increasin-gly gridlocked streets. These are experienced based on the attempts to implement carsharing to the current road traf-fic. However, assuming that after some time the number of private cars would decrease, the result could be quite the opposite. The key of carsharing system is to use the car constantly for the longest possible period of time during the day. It would increase the number of parking spots and improve efficiency of the used vehicles. Currently, the private cars are used only for a short period of time during the day, for the rest of the day, they occupy the parking spots. Effective use of a vehicle only when we need it also reduces the costs that are usually born by the owners, na-mely, fixing, insurance, registration costs and car purchase.

CARShARinG in EuRoPE

Europe gives us a good example. In European agglomera-tions such as Nice or Lyons, e-mobility has been present for years and is still developing. However, it is very often refinances by the country. The French receive grants for buying electric cars and do not pay for car parks. What is

116

more, renting electric car, which finds wide audience, is flourishing in several cities. It results in decreasing CO2 emission (8g/1km), energy consumption and noise level in the city. In total, on French roads, there are 130 more elec-tric cars than in Poland. Autolib’ which operates in Paris -, since December 2011, has released 250 Bluecar model cars. This electric 4-seat vehicle was designed by Pininfari-na studio and its range comes to 250 km. The car does not have to be returned to the place where it was rented. You can use GPS to book the destination place.

In Germany, carsharing is used by nearly 1 million users. It is offered by more than 150 companies, including renow-ned car manufacturers such as BMW, Daimler and Citroen. It is also worth to mention the Car2Go network, which since 2008 has been running the company in Ulm in Ger-many. In its fleet, there are electric ForTwo Smarts, which we will maybe be able to see on Polish streets soon. The network operates also in Italy and Austria, in total, provi-ding services to 25 cities of Europe and North America. However, in Guimaraes in Portugal, the town hall disclosed over a dozen electric cars already in 2013.

Prices of European carsharing range from EUR 15 to EUR 35 for an hour of driving. The users can also buy a we-ekly, monthly and annual subscription. European rates are a crucial problem and it is, among others, the scale of char-ges that should take the first place while considering in-troducing carsharing in Poland. Unreasonable price would discourage even the greatest supporters of ecology and proactive transport what could immediately result in new electric cars fleets becoming an example of unsuccessful debut of innovative technology.

ElECTRiC vEhiClES in PoliSh CiTiES

Introducing electric car renting would be feasible also in Poland. Such solution would make it possible to unload in-dividual transport and possibly also the public one; the use of electric technology would surly have a positive influen-ce on the environment. Nonetheless, to implement such an innovative system, modernisation of infrastructure wo-uld be necessary. It is crucial to equip Polish cities in bigger number of charging points similar to those in Germany.

As far as the development is concerned, we are facing a great challenge. An input in sustainable mobility develop-ment in Poland can be also provided by enterprises and offices that would decide to buy car fleet for their employ-ees. They have a chance to choose ecological cars with electric motor.

PoliSh GREEn TAXi

The most interesting solution on Polish market is the one of sharing Green Taxi electric cars fleet (www.taxi.greenpl.eu), which not only allows entrepreneurs to get access to neces-sary vehicles but also provides charging infrastructure as well as parking space. It is a well-conceived, pioneering innovation which achieved success due to its complex vision. The servi-ce aims mainly at taxi corporations which in cooperation with Green Taxi can boast of not only ecological aitude to trans-port but also wide range of digital maps.

The idea of carsharing will be implemented in Warsaw soon. Two years ago, Łukasz Puchalski – town hall attorney - beca-me very fond of it. The project was accepted by town authori-ties and was supposed to be launched in 2015. In autumn, the Warsaw council incorporated it in the statute of ZDM (Muni-cipal Roads Authority), however, the service of starting rental company has not been put out to tender yet. Privileges that electric car owners have also fuel controversy among counci-lors – permits to drive on bus lane as well as free-of-charge use of metered parking zone. It has been agreed that it would violate current rules and affect other companies, for example, those which rent cars at the airport. The technology has been already fully-prepared, the biggest problem is the change of people’s habits.

Perhaps, Warsaw will not be the first place in Poland to intro-duce carsharing. Tourism significantly contributes to develop-ment of this idea, what can be proved by Mediterranean cities where one way of sightseeing is to rent and travel by an elec-tric car. Additionally, in such cars, we can find GPS with to-uristic routes, which significantly helps holiday-makers to find interesting, worth-seeing places. Carsharing, however, is not easy to implement in small, sparsely populated cities. Maybe that is why Gdynia or Gdańsk should be the first to test the complicated carsharing and electric motor conglomerate.

noT only CARShARinG of nEw vEhiClES BuT AlSo ConvERSion of uSEd ComBuSTion CARS in Po-lAnd

However, there is still a question whether the local authorities will be encouraged enough to do it, since they cannot count on neither grants to cofinance the purchase of electric vehic-les nor concessions as far as tax charge is concerned.

Another way to implement foreign plan of introducing ecolo-gical car rental companies to Polish market is converting cars from combustion to electric ones. For entrepreneurs, it wo-uld be the cheapest, most payable and most beneficial form


of introducing eco-friendly vehicles. On Polish market, Green Taxi (www.taxi.greenpl.eu) in cooperation with Green Covent (http://carsev.pl) deals with conversion. Their offer targets en-terprises which owe fleets as well as public administration bodies. Lower costs that one would have to bear, would de-finitely result in more affordable prices of carsharing and wo-uld not constitute a big risk, as it is in the case of expensive, brand-new electric cars.

It is worth mentioning that the Green Taxi Company is affilia-ted in Green Cars Cluster (http://carspl.eu), which associates companies that provide components for charging infrastruc-te for electric cars. That is why the initiative of implemen-ting carsharing of electric cars along with conversion of used combustion cars into electric ones as well as development of charging infrastructure will be innovative on a European scale.

Green Convert Group is currently working on conversion of traditional bicycle into electric one. What does it look like in the case of a bicycle? To cut the long story short, special en-gine and battery has to be installed. The choice of drive is also crucial. One can select central drive of engine integrated with chainset and pedals, drive attached to the rear wheel which is applied mainly in mountain bikes and variant with engine installed in the front wheel, which due to its low price is the most popular. On the basis of the idea of electric bi-cycle that is being created, project for local governments and

cities is going to be developed. It is indeed a great tool for an indirect reduction of combustion vehicles from the traffic. Maybe more comfortable and easier use of the bicycle will encourage drivers to use single-track vehicles more often in short-distance travels.

The vision of a city full of quiet, safe for the environment cars is a beautiful image. More important, however, the results, namely the improvement of the air quality and noise reduc-tion as well as decreasing congestion and number of car ac-cidents on the roads. It is a fact that the number of manufac-tured electric cars is still rising. Certainly, in the near future, carsharing of electric cars in connection with conversion of combustion cars and expanding charging infrastructure will be as successful as the systems of Veturilo bicycles. Poland as a country with cars distinctly different from each other in terms of the year of their production uses the system of car conversion. It significantly contributes to reducing the costs of obtaining electric vehicle, consequently, enables Polish drivers to use new, green technologies.

References:

1. Initiatives of e-mobility in Poland, http://natemat.pl/145177, samochody-elektryczne-przyszloscia-polskich-miast, 12.04.2016

phot. Shutterstock

Contact details

EGTAwww.egta.eu

[email protected] www.egta.eu

GB - 015

Green Logger

The application of Green Logger is the chance for improving transport quality.

Temperaturefrom -40⁰C to 85⁰C

Humidity from0% to 100%

Shocks from0g to +/-16g

Tilts with the prec-ision of 1 degree

Fall from+/-2g to +/-16g

Pressure fluctuationsfrom 0 to 10 000 hPa

Measurements of thedistance from the basestation and change ofoutput power of the

transmitter

Measurements andanalysis of light

■ Communication: ANT, BLE 4.0, radio, NFC,

■ Power supply: lithium battery (life-time – 1.5 year),

■ Memory: 4MB, ■ Supply battery voltage measure-

ment , ■ Chip antenna, gain +3dBm, ■ Digital RSSI (possibility to deter-

mine the distance from a given Green AST logger),

■ Environmental sensors, ■ Measurements (thickness: 5-7 mm,

diagonal 50-80 mm depending on design version).

Application: Technical parameters:

Green Loggers – control and measurement devices allowing to monitoring environmental parameters during transportation of loads/shipments.

TRANSPORT OF PHARMACEUTICALS

TRANSPORT OF DANGEROUS GOODS

TRANSPORT OF FRAGILE GOODS

TRANSPORT OF FOOD

TRANSPORT OF ARTWORK

TRANSPORT OF MILITARIA

GreenCloud technology has been developed by Green IT company, a member of Smart IT Cluster. It is a platform which receives data from users’ devices and, in a standardised way, shares data in applications selected by the user. It also enables work of unlimited number of devices and applications.

Technology of Green Cloud makes it possible to process, store and analyze data streams of “Big Data”, which are generated by sensors, portable computers and RFID readers. Services and applications that work with use of this technology are as follows: Green Logger, AST, Green Med and many others.

Contact details

EGTAwww.egta.eu

[email protected] www.egta.eu

GB - 037

■ Authorisation of GreenID users through OAuth2 protocol,

■ Access to data through API, ■ SSL communication ciphering, ■ Extended configuration of users’

devices, ■ Different levels of authorization, ■ Access to certain data (according to

time of measurement and data type), ■ An open platform for creating own

apps.

■ Support of many different types of protocols: - Low-level for built-in systems, - High-level for apps and mobile devices,

■ Support of different ways of autho-rization of devices ranging from the simplified according to IMEI for simple devices such as GPS to tokens,

■ SSL communication ciphering, ■ Collection of any data determined by

the device driver.

As far as the user and application are concerned:

Green Cloud technology

As far as the device is concerned:

Green Cloud

Data carriers such as: NOR Flash, NAND Flash, FRAM and microSD.

Modules such as: GSM, WIFI, USB, radio wor-king at 2.4[GHz]band, radio working at 315[MHz], 433[MHz], 868[MHz], 915[MHz] bands. The sys-tems communicate with Green Cloud – a system of quick informing about road accidents (E-Call).

1. “Black box” 1. “Black box”

2. Communication with GreenCloud:

3. Peripheral devices:

2. Communication with GreenCloud:

Way of communication: OBD2, an alarm, pager, barcode reader, display with the touch panel and a device compatible with Bluetooth 4.0 and ANT/ANT+.

■ Configuring the work of devices from Extension System;


EGTAwww.egta.eu

GB - 077

AST - is an innovative “black box”, which main designation is to analyze the accident and immediately inform proper offices

about the occurrence.

■ System of spatial orientation, ■ Navigation system, ■ System of measuring g-force,

■ Record of detailed driving parameters with 100[Hz] frequency,

■ Record of basic driving parameters, asynchronous

■ Record of accidents exceeding accepta-ble g-force – two levels of configuration: - low g-force threshold – low priority, - high threshold – high priority;

■ Archiving measurement and accidents of the extension system

■ Transfer of archived, basic driving parameters; ■ Transfer of archived accidents with the possi-

bility to download detailed driving parameters covering the time of an accident, e.g. 30 seconds before the accident and 10 second after the accident;

■ Configuring the work of “black box” and devi-ces of Extension System;

■ Remote reading of the diagnosis parameters, on board diagnostics level 2 (OBDII);

■ Alarm system protecting the cars from being stolen, remotely informs about the occurrence;

■ Graphical interface allowing to configure the work of AST Integration of AST with IoT devices;

Measuring System consists of:

Basic functionality Extended functionality

Archiving system

Communication System

Extension System

Green AST


EGTAwww.egta.eu

GB - 059

Green Power I - technology of gum and non-recycled waste (PE, PP) processing

■ little space required for the operation of the device,

■ the modular structure - possibility to progressively increase plant capacity,

■ low power con-sumption (energy self-sufficiency),

■ low costs of opera-ting and maintaining in running order,

■ possibility to moni-tor the production process,

■ low-emission tech-nology (no industrial waste, low emission of dust and gases, efficient waste management),

■ solving the problem of plastic waste and gum management,

■ reducing landfilled waste volume,

■ recovering chemi-cal energy from the substrate,

■ reducing oil consumption.

Waste which are recycled according to Green Power I technology

Waste which are not recycled accor-ding to Green Power I technology

The basic features Environmental benefits

Green Power I technology


■ Medical Monitoring - modern diagnostics in a real time,

■ Help Search - interactive map with the nearest hospitals, medical centres and pharmacies,

■ Patient’s Card - a view on general and specialised examination results, referrals and prescriptions,No risk for birds and bats,

■ On-line Diagnostics - medical consulta-tion with a chosen specialist.

Four main areas of GreenMed are:


GB - 017

EyesightSugar

Morphology Pressure

TemperatureEcg

GreenMed application is based on the authorial cloud system called GreenCloud and allows for gathering, storing and sending data on patient’s state of health. Medical data are sent to a server in specified time intervals, thanks to which a patient’s doctor or family may have access to it.

GreenMed – an integrated system of monitoring a patient’s state of health, allowing to get a dynamic preview of data that comes

from telemedical sensors.

GreenMedEGTA

www.egta.eu

123

CONTACT INFORMATION:

ENERGYINDUSTRY

RESTRUCTURING

INDUSTRIALAND AGRICULTURAL

REAL ESTATE

TELEMEDICINEAND ONCOLOGY

DIAGNOSTICS

WASTEMANAGEMENT

Green Way Closed-End Investment Fund of Non-Public Assets

www.greenwaypl.eu

FinCrea Towarzystwo Funduszy

Inwestycyjnych S.A.www.� ncrea.pl

ADMINISTRATOR: INVESTMENTFUND:

phone: + 48 22 424 95 80/82/83 o� [email protected]

Greenway FIZAN was established to develop innovative investments in Poland. The Fund o� ers investors a unique investment opportuni-ties, combining several aspects: � nancial, legal and tax, for optimalallocation of funds. Green Way FIZAN manages its own assets andgives to the investors the opportunity to participate in ongoing projects.

124

Invest in Poland!

Why Poland?

financing of PLN 3 bln in the largest support program for start-ups in Central and Eastern Europe - "Start in Poland"

82,5 billion euro of EU investment funds for 2014-2020

21st place in terms of the quality of econo-mic growth

8th place in the ranking of the biggest EU economies

8th place among Europe's biggest economies

maintaining high GDP growth over 2014-2016

500,000 apartments under the National Housing Fund program worth investing EUR 30 bln

modern RES installations worth investing EUR 8 bln

OLSZTYN

WARSAW

GDANSK

CRACOW

POZNAN

www.egta.eu

WROCLAW

27th place in the ranking of the most socially developed countries

6th most populated country in the EU

10th place while taking into consideration the amount of remuneration of the EU countries employees

67 billion euro of EU investment funds in 2007 - 2013

Green Economy English version

Documents

Transcript of Green Economy English version