A delegation from the Energy Change Institute travelled to Astana, Kazakhstan in August to connect with energy researchers from the Central Asian country at the Australia – Kazakhstan Energy Forum.
The Australian Ambassador to the Russian Federation, His Excellency Mr Peter Tesch and Mr Bolatbek Sultangazin, Chairman of the Kazakhstan Science Fund opened the Forum. Senior representatives attended from leading Kazakhstan universities, the Ministry of Energy, the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan and industrial enterprises.
Presentations and round-table discussion covered topics of mutual interest including renewable energy technologies and storage, reform of electricity markets and modern approaches to energy regulation and governance.
“Our visit has resulted in new co-operation between Australia and Kazakhstan energy researchers from a number of universities,” said Dr Skryabin, Business Development Manager, ECI who led the delegation. “Nazarbayev University is particularly interested in ANU’s Master of Energy Change program.” During the visit, the ECI delegation also presented at the Future Energy Forum, a side event conference running alongside Expo 2017, a 66-day international forum on future energy taking place in Astana, where Dr Skryabin moderated a session on “the Challenges of New Time”.
The delegation also took part in the 5th International Conference on Nanomaterials and Advanced Energy Storage Systems (INESS-2017, http://iness.batterykazakhstan.com) where Dr Skryabin presented a paper on battery system optimization.
The ECI delegation comprised of Dr Kaveh Rajab Kalipour, senior research fellow; Professor Wojciech Lipinski, Convenor, Solar Thermal Cluster; Dr Igor Skryabin, BDM and Dr James Prest, Convenor, Energy Regulation and Governance Cluster. The visit was sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Article credit: Energy Change Institute