Undergrad Works to Bring Renewable Energy Technology Home to Ukraine

In Windmill Park in the foothills of Northern Arizona, 19-year-old Anna Zinenko is investigating the potential market and benefits for wind energy. She hopes the efforts undertaken on these wind farms will produce transferrable results that can be utilized in her home country of Ukraine. Though only an undergraduate student, she is considered a peer among the researchers and professors from Northern Arizona University’s Sustainable Energy Solutions (SES).

Anna is currently a fellow in the Eurasian Undergraduate Exchange Program (UGrad), a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State and administered by IREX. For the past year she has been studying environmental management at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. UGRAD fellows are required to complete an internship related to their field of study, and the project Anna is working on could potentially benefit millions of people.

The Global Potentials for Small to Mid-Sized Wind Production project aims to provide quantifiable data that can be used to justify such energy practices in the developing world. Wind energy is one of the most attractive solutions to the world’s energy and climate crisis; it’s clean, carbon independent, and endless in supply. Anna’s data collection will help define products for small systems (10-50 kW), medium systems (50-500 kW), possible hybrid wind and diesel systems, separated wind power pumping systems, and storage options for harvested wind energy.

The results of this research will eventually be published as a scholarly article where Anna’s name will stand as co-author for the paper, quite an accomplishment for an undergraduate student. But this research is more than just scholarly interest; it is something Anna is immensely passionate about. Her home country of Ukraine has many potential regions for the harvesting of wind energy for domestic and industrial use. Not only could this provide solutions to Ukraine’s future energy needs, but it could create a potential windfall of financial investment opportunities.

According to the 2007 Human Development Report, of the 1.577 billion people in the world currently without electricity, 1.569 billion of those people are from developing countries. Anna and the team of researches hope to improve the lives of developing people in an environmentally sustainable manner.

Anna says, “Having electricity, developing countries will be able to access services and goods, which will raise their standards of living. Moreover, this project will provide environmentally clean and renewable energy.”

In the future, Anna aims to work on corporate environment and business projects and work towards the development of renewable energy solutions in Ukraine. Her internship has provided her with the tools and experience to make this dream a reality.

“The most valuable experience that I have gained is the understanding that I can implement ideas and they are really working. I am able to see results of my research work; that is really exciting.”