17 goals for a better world – no. 7: Affordable and clean energy

This time, we take a closer look at goal no. 7: Affordable and clean energy, which means to:

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

Save energy, be green!

Within the “Sustainable BME” programme, the Energy and Water Management Group operates in cooperation with the Chancellery to promote and professionally support the more energy-efficient and economical operation of BME. 

Budapest University of Technology and Economics is constantly streamlining its operations. The heating and hot water services have been switched to a more economical mode of operation, the replacement of windows has begun, and as a symbolic, but important step, the BME OMIKK (National Technical Information Centre and Library) is now heated by geothermal energy.

At the “BME for Sustainability” conference in November 2022 and another conference entitled “Results and Experiences in Making Universities More Sustainable”, held on 29 September 2023, several presentations dealt with sustainable energy and the energy management options of the future.

In November 2023, professor emeritus János Szépvölgyi (HUN-REN) gave an exciting lecture, entitled “Is development sustainable?” Sustainable energy was chosen as the first topic for the Sustainability Workshop series, to be held on 24 April 2024. At the event, Attila Aszódi, Dean of BME’s Faculty of Natural Sciences, will speak about the role of nuclear energy in sustainability, while Péter Kaderják, Director of the BME Zero Carbon Centre, will review the development of the Hungarian battery industry value chain from the perspective of sustainability and economic development. 

Realistic alternative energy sources, such as nuclear energy, are given greater weight in the subjects taught. We aim to give a credible picture of the multi-causal climate situation. One of the key topics of the “green” TDK conferences so far was clean energy. Related projects are also strongly represented in BME research projects: e.g. the development of Li ion batteries, catalytic reduction of CO₂, hydrogen storage solutions, and the application of efficient microwave heating (Faculty of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, BME). The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics is working on developing higher efficiency perovskite and silicon-based tandem solar cells. Also in their recent project (TwinEU) , they are working on the digital twinning of the EU’s entire energy network, which could lead to the optimisation of energy supply. Researchers at BME’s Faculty of Natural Sciences are investigating the possibility of integrating sustainable energy sources with conventional energy production using machine learning methods based on artificial intelligence, and are working on understanding the physical processes that are fundamental to the efficiency of perovskite-based solar materials. The main research theme of the Thematic Area Excellence Programme at BME’s Faculty of Architecture is Energy Security and Energy Supply, which aims to develop and efficiently operate self-sustainable buildings. BME's Faculty of Civil Engineering and Faculty of Mechanical Engineering focus their research on increasing the energy efficiency and decarbonisation of the building stock. There are also several publications related to sustainable energy management. 

In the BME Green Hub Facebook group, which was created for the citizens of the university, several awareness-raising posts, lecture and conference recommendations related to the energy-conscious use of buildings were published.

KGy, KK (BME Committee on Sustainability)