Kaluga Motor-Building Plant Production Association

Telephone: (011-7-08422) 7-67-70; 
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The Kaluga Motor-Building Plant produces Klimov-designed gas-turbine engines for T-80 tanks and engines for civilian aircraft, including the Il-114. It also incorporates a design bureau, the Kaluga Experimental Motor-Building Office. The Kaluga Turbine Plant is located nearby.

The plant is producing agricultural equipment with several different attachments, as well as heat and power generators. It also plans to begin building 15- to 30-horsepower diesel engines using domestically-produced components, with an initial batch of 500 scheduled for production in 1993. The plant operated an auxiliary farm that breeds pigs. Shoe-making equipment was being produced through a joint venture with Zarya Moscow Footwear Plant and Company AG of Germany, wherein the Russian firms have 62% of the stock.

Kaluga is an ancient Russian city known from 1371 which is situated in the heart of the country 180 km south of Moscow on the Oka river. There are many historical places and charming buildings including famous Museum of the history of astronautics. Kaluga city is connected with the life of well-known Russian scientists. First of all it is necessary to note the founder of astronautics Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and the founder of science about Sun-Earth connections Alexander Chizhevsky. In Kaluga Tsiolkovsky has developed the basic principles of rocket flights and has published pioneer papers about the conquest of space.

The International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) was established by international agreement in November 1992 as a nonproliferation program. The ISTC coordinates the efforts of numerous governments, international organizations, and private sector industries, providing weapons scientists from Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States new opportunities in international partnership. AO Kaluga Experimental Bureau of Motor Building, along with New Technologies Inventing Firm and State Machine Building Design Bureau "Raduga" [the Leading Institute] proposed designing and development of experimental gas wind-turbine (GWT).

The wind power potential is not stable enough with time, while the customers need guaranteed power supply. As a result, there is a necessity to use the electric plants and electric power stations with internal combustion engines (Diesel) as a primary power source, the transport vehicle engines are most often converted for the needs of power supply. They have proved to be most reliable, easy to operate and operable in different climatic zones.

However, in today conditions, when increase of thermal efficiency of the autonomous electric power sources is one 'of the main requirements equally with electric diesel plants with rather low efficiency (30%). The fuel for such plants is very expensive, the fuel delivery is very costly due to the transportation expenses 5-10 times increase caused by the difficulty of the region access, all that results in considerable rise in the price of the electric power generated.

To eliminate the defects of the wind turbines and the thermal engies, Raduga State MBDB and CIAM have proposed the gas wind-turbine (GWT) configuration, which is their combination on the level of interengine processes (Conclusion ?95 115155/06 of 25 August, 1995 to grant a patent).

Structurally, the GWT is a combined power plant based on the wind power turbine (compressor wind-turbine) and gas-turbine engine (gas-turbine unit). The compressor wind-turbine, using the wind power, compresses the air and passes it to the gas-turbine unit, the power of its gas turbine in this case is used only for actuation of the generator for electric power generation, while nearly 50% of the common gas turbine power is used for actuating the compressor. That significantly improves the efficiency as compared with the traditional thermal engines (70-80% efficiency), power output from the wind turbine swept area is 2-2.5 times higher. It is also good, that ecological characteristics of the gas wind-turbine are improved as compared to the traditional thermal engines (discharge of harmful agents is 30-50 times lower than that of carburetor and diesel engines).

The progress in the project development is supported by the experience available at Raduga State MBDB due to the development of 1 kW to 1 000 kW wind turbines, and CIAM's and ?? KOBM's experience in development of gas turbines. The proposed project can be successfully implemented by the creative personnel used to work on missile development. The commercial value of the project is determined by the interest to develop the GWT, expressed by some Russian (Gasprom) and foreign companies, As the result of the project development an experimental GWT with power of more than 32 kW might be developed.

The project implementation allows the reorientation of the high-qualified scientists and engineers, who are experts in developing missile weapon, to civil spheres and solution of important scientific, technical and ecological problems, that will strengthen Russia's scientific and economic potential and promote progress on the way to market economy.

If the project is successful, it is proposed to create a JV with foreign partners for the production of gas wind-turbines. Participation of foreign partners is necessary, first of all, for the development of the automated GWT control system, as they have wide experience in this sphere.