UST: News

The 23^rd Belarusian Energy and Environmental Forum took place in Minsk on October 9-12, 2017. The forum hosted the 23^rd International Specialized Exhibition "Power. Ecology. Energy Saving. Electro" (Energy Expo), specialized exhibitions of petrochemical technologies Oil&Gas Technologies, lighting products ExpoLight, AtomExpo-Belarus, Water and Air Technologies, ExpoCity and the 23^rd Belarusian Energy and Environmental Congress.

About 300 organizations from 16 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Baltic countries, Poland, Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Finland, China and the USA, have participated in the exhibition this year.

SkyWay Technologies Co. was also featured in this event. Svetlana Voloshina, Lead Analyst of Business Projects Division, participated in the conference on the problems and prospects for the electric transport development. The topical issue of presentations was electric vehicles and infrastructure for them, although electric transport is still deemed today as something luxury and individual, and passenger transportation is covered poorly.

Talking about how SkyWay Technologies Co. plans to change the idea of public transport, Svetlana Voloshina noted that today there is no need to produce heavy capacious trains, like in metro. Modern technologies allow to create automated control systems capable of decreasing the headway and reducing the track load. The transport system under the SkyWay technology makes the rolling stock depart as it is full. This means that there is no need for heavy 70-100-passenger coaches, therefore the waiting time is reduced to its minimum.

Moreover, Svetlana Voloshina pointed out that a new type of transport system developed by SkyWay Technologies Co. features energy efficiency and environmental friendliness. The rolling stock is electrically driven; due to a set of state-of-the-art technical solutions, the optimal amount of energy is used to move and provide comfort to passengers. It is also important that renewable energy sources can be used for power supply.

According to Svetlana Voloshina, thanks to a smart approach to the development, the string transport allows not only to solve actual infrastructure problems, but also saves money. The costs are reduced due to the automated control systems, energy efficiency and high reliability of the track structures.

Translation of the video:

Mikhail Kirichenko: Hallo everybody! Here is Mikhail Kirichenko with you. You are watching SkyWay news, where we tell you about the developments and implementation of breakthrough transport technologies. We are today at the exhibition Energy Expo 2017 and our talk partner is Svetlana Voloshina, leading analyst of the Targeted Projects Department, SkyWay Technologies Co. Good day, Svetlana!

Svetlana Voloshina: Hallo, Mikhail!

M.K.: What are you doing here? Please share your secret.

S.V.: We are here at the conference on transport problems. It continues for several hours now. A great number of presenters have already delivered their reports. They spoke about electric transport, mostly about cars, gas stations, about their development in our country and the whole world, about their prospects. You know, I noticed one point - electric transport is mostly treated here as something remote, luxury and individual. They spoke very little about using electric transport for passenger traffic. Just several models of buses were shown. We know that one experimental model is operating in Minsk, but that's the end of it. There appears an impression that this subject will not get development in the next year, at least until the next exhibition.

M.K.: I hope we shall prove the opposite attitude.

S.V.: Yes. That's why I am here to expand horizons a little, to explain the possibilities of electric transport, of course, the one from our SkyWay at the "second level" to service passengers efficiently, eco-friendly and comfortably. I will take the floor soon, please come to listen to me. I think it will be interesting.

M.K.: We shall not only listen, but also record it. We will have to account to our partners somehow. We wish you success. And I think you should say something to them as parting words.

S.V.: BUILD SKYWAY — SAVE THE PLANET!

I would like to develop a little the subject of using electric transport for freight and passenger transportation. Even for personal cars, there is a great number of problems. There are even more of them for urban passenger transport. Primarily, it is a low traffic speed, which is 20-30 km/h in a city averagely. Ecological hazard and noise from buses and trolley-buses also irritate city residents. Besides, the high cost of building roads and multi-level junctions. A large area for a depot also needs certain expenses. If we pass over from internal combustion engine (ICE) to electric transport, some above problems might be solved. In principle, the basis is the ecology. This aspect is very popular in Europe. And I am very pleased that both in Belarus and Russia, as opinion polls show, governments and population are more concerned with other aspects. For example, the cost of construction and creation of infrastructure. The roads should be built and constantly maintained. The passengers travelling daily to and from their work locations are concerned with a very low speed of traffic. This problem cannot be solved by replacement of ICE with an electric motor, because it depends not on the structure of a bus, but on the traffic jams, growing number of vehicles, etc. One of the options to solve this problem is a metro. However, it is difficult to build it and it grows slowly. Besides, it is very costly. You can see the Dubai metro on the photo. It is quite modern, comfortable for passengers, it is operated with an automated system. However, the cost of USD 100 mln/km is extremely high and only few cities can afford it. Here the system is elevated to the "second level", though mostly it runs underground. However, it is possible to create a transport complex at the "second level", above the ground. This idea is proposed by SkyWay Technologies Co. We have been developing it for many years, but the practical stage to implement this project started about 2 years ago, since a land plot near Maryina Gorka was allocated to us. Our EcoTechnoPark has been built there. It has several types of track structures, on which we are testing and demonstrating electric vehicles including those for urban passenger services. These are real photos. We also have cargo transport and individual vehicles (2-seat unibikes). You can see here a 14-passenger unibus and a double-section 28-passenger one. All of them are real. Let us watch the video. The 14-passenger unibus accelerates to 80 km/h speed within several seconds. This video was filmed some weeks ago. At the last tests it reached the speed of above 100 km/h. It is accelerated and slowed down very smoothly by an automatic control system. We produce our vehicles ourselves. High accuracy in production is needed for good aerodynamics. Therefore, we have a very skillful working team of above 70 people. All the equipment is sophisticated and operated with electronics. We produce various types of vehicles. For instance, you can see an image of a three-section unitruck that has been demonstrated a week ago here at the Transport Week. It is designed for 18 passengers. Here we also have several versions of unibus. Why their capacity is not so large? 14, 18... As a rule, trains are designed for 70-100 people. A large railway, a heavy viaduct. We can see the same principle in the metro. Many people are waiting for one train for 3 minutes. They enter it, the large train with a heavy load rides along the railway and then stops for 2 minutes. We arrange the logistics with an automatic control system in such a way that vehicles could move at high frequency starting with 2-second interval. In fact, in real conditions they will not be launched so often, because nowhere in the world there is such a passenger flow that it would be necessary to set out 14 people every 2 seconds in both directions from a station. These are very high passenger flows, which might be in India. However, we haven't observed such passenger flow yet. In principle, a 10-15-second interval is quite suitable. It is very effective by time and people will save it not only due to speed, but also due to reduced waiting. These are technical features of a unibus. Please, pay attention to electric power consumption with the climatic unit on and off. It is either heating or air conditioning. They are different, but the power consumption is quite low. We are constantly perfecting it. Unibuses can be powered by the mains and they also have onboard batteries. The driving distance for them is 200 km. How was such high power efficiency reached? Various technical solutions were applied. They are primarily under the hood of a vehicle. It is also a great work with aerodynamics so as to make the surface exclusively accurate and smooth providing perfect streamlining. It is the use of steel wheels and steel rails. It is the energy recuperation and the possibility to use renewable energy. It all results in rather low operational cost. In addition to energy saving, there is also the saving on wages, because rolling stock is operated by an automatic control system. Besides, there is no need to repair string rails in spring. As a result, we get the following. These are expenses for a conventional transport. Suppose, electric buses can reduce fuel cost by half. Anyway, all other expenses for wages and maintenance remain the same, as a rule. Therefore, we have several times more saving that in any other mode of transport. We got used to the fact that something new and innovative, the latest models and developments are usually very expensive. Actually, our transport system is less costly than construction of a metro, highway and infrastructure. Firstly, the rail, the overpass is very strong, thin and slender. It does not have to bear such strong loads as on a traditional flyover. Secondly, there is no need for a large land allocation. Supports are installed pointwise. Under the supports and overpasses there may be urban buildings, highways with cars, walking people or crops, whatever. Certainly, this system can be applied actually anywhere in the world, in any city. Cities can be interconnected in a unified system. Here is the plan to capture the world. If anybody is interested in this subject, I am ready to answer your questions, to share the information and to discuss it. Thank you.