Georgians exhibit solutions to climate change problems

On November 6 an exhibition of innovative green technologies opened at the ‘Saqpatenti’ conference hall, where about twenty examples of superior technological achievement were presented.

The exhibition, initiated by the Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources of Georgia with the support of the UNDP and in partnership with Georgian NGO Green Way, is the first of its kind in Georgia, promoting local technology developers and linking them with potential investors.

“Climate-friendly technology is a smart and effective way to make our planet a better place to live. This exhibition shows that Georgian developers have tremendous potential to boost the competitiveness of clean technologies,” UNDP Resident Representative Robert Watkins said at the opening ceremony.

The exhibition features up to twenty examples of innovative technology, such as wind and solar energy multipliers, wind turbine rotors, and a landslide early warning system. One project which particularly attracted guests’ attention was the Energy Multiplier developed by Vaja Dzamardjashvili. The Energy Multiplier accumulates and multiplies solar and wind energy so that it can be consumed when needed. The device applies electric power, generated by the solar and wind energy, to pump water and accumulate it in a reservoir. The water descends to a turbine and produces electricity. The level of energy multiplication is produced by the difference between the heights of the reservoir and turbine.

Another project presented yesterday was the Ground Stabilization Methodology developed by Vladimer Loladze. This involves the use of melted sulphur to stabilize the ground. Sulphur melted at 130-1700 is injected into the ground through an injector or a well the same way bituminous grouting would be. The technology achieves rapid and durable results, as melted sulphur needs only 1.5-2 hours to cool down to the temperature of the surrounding environment. Unlike “wet” methodologies, such as cementation, the proposed technique does not cause ground shrinkage. Sulphur is a by-product of oil production, and what to do with it is a huge problem for oil producing countries. Along with its economic effects, the use of sulphur for the stabilization of soil may give strong environmental benefits.

One of the most important projects presented was Iulon Gabrichidze’s Landslide Early Warning System. Gabrichidze is an engineer by profession and says that this project is very important due to the frequent landslides in Georgia and especially Adjara, where some people died in a landslide last month.

Speaking with The Messenger Gabrichidze explained that his early warning system involves registering and controlling landslide zones as well as ensuring the emergency evacuation of people threatened by landslides. “At the first signs of a landslide flow, the system transmits warning signals to an operations unit, which processes this information and sends an alert to the population. Registration units are located in potentially hazardous areas. Their sensitivity may vary from 5 to 2mm. If a unit changes its original location and position its sends a signal to operation unit,” Gabrichidze explained.

NGO Green Way entered into partnership with the UNDP and Environment Ministry at the beginning of this year. They sought out Georgian inventors with interesting and useful projects which could be displayed. “The main goal of this exhibition was to show our inventors’ innovations to a broader section of society, especially foreigners, in order to introduce them to our technologies,” Director of Green Way Giorgi Maghradze told The Messenger, adding that he is very hopeful that many people will be interested in these projects and implement them, so that they do not remain only on paper but serve the purposes for which they were designed.

Deputy Minister of the Environment Davit Ioseliani welcomed the invited guests and thanked the organizers for their support of this project. He said that next year it will be 15 years since Georgia joined the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, and since that time Georgia has participated in a number of activities connecting with this convention. Ioseliani highlighted that one of the aspects of the convention was to put new technologies into practice, and added that due to Georgia’s economic position the country had been unable to implement these new ideas domestically so far, but this left Georgia with great potential for further improvements in this sector.

The Deputy Minister also remarked that often ideas such as these are implemented in foreign countries, making this sort of exhibition very important in presenting innovative Georgian projects to an international audience.