BIO

Professor Jan Kiciński, a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), is the head of the Department of Distributed Energy at the Institute of Fluid Flow Machines of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IMP PAN) in Gdańsk. Earlier, for several terms he was the director and deputy director for scientific affairs of this institute. He was the head of several high-budget, nationwide research projects in the field of eco-energy and new renewable energy technologies. He is a doctor of honoris causa of the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow and the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn.

He was the head of the project: "Construction of the Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences - Energy Conversion and Renewable Sources". As a result, the largest and most modern center of this type in the country and one of three in Europe were created. He is a laureate, among others National Energy Globe Awards (the most prestigious international award in the field of environmental protection under the auspices of UNESCO and UNEP), the Prime Minister of the first degree for scientific and technical achievements award and Siemens research award.

ABSTRACT

Authors of this article tries to find answers to these and many other questions. Today we can already accept as a proven thesis that rapid and dangerous for our civilisation climate changes can also be attributed to high carbon and low-efficient power engineering.

Power engineering and climate neutrality are no longer just problems for politicians, companies and scientists, but have become a challenge for our civilisation.

The foregoing general remarks, but also the fact that a gradual transition from traditional large-scale fossil fuel-based energy generation to distributed energy generation based on renewable resources is inevitable, constitute the main message of this article.

Smart community and smart residential play a key role in this process.

The article also aims to discuss the role of the Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IMP PAN) in Gdańsk in the process of energy transformation in our country.