Main energy conversion machinery used and to be used in cogeneration systems are schematically described. Some assets of the distributed generation are pointed out and small-scale cogeneration systems designed for energy units of distributed cogeneration are described.

In the small scale, turbines and bearings are a source of specific problems connected with securing stable rotor operation. Accepted has been two kinds of high speed micro-turbines of electric power about 3 KW with multistage axial and radial rotors supported on foil bearings. A concept which becomes more and more attractive takes into account a low-boiling agent, which is normally used in the thermal cycle of the micro-turbine, as the lubricating liquid in the bearings (so-called ORC based systems). Of some importance is the operation of these machines at a low noise emission level, sine being parts of the household equipment they could disturb the calm of the residents. The scope of the present article is limited to the discussion of dynamic characteristics of the selected design. The properties of the rotor combined with slide bearings (foil bearings in this particular case) were taken under investigation. A combination of this type is a certain novelty since a typical modal analysis of such objects refers to a rotor itself. Analysing the dynamic state of the "home" power plants requires qualitatively novel research tools.

Ludzkość jest zmuszona do zmiany sposobu, w jaki korzysta ze źródeł energii. Powinna przestać wydobywać paliwa kopalne i skupić się na OZE, zwłaszcza słońcu. Taka transformacja może okazać się długo poszukiwanym Świętym Graalem energetyki.

Czy można wygrać walkę ze smogiem? I jak mogą w tym pomóc nowe technologie?

Humanity is being forced to alter how we use energy sources, to move away from fossil fuels and focus instead on renewable, especially solar energy. This transformation may prove to be the long sought-after “holy grail” of energy.

Can the fight against smog be won? Can new technologies become our allies in this struggle?

Is the world’s power engineering at a crossroads? Will ongoing climate changes and rise of new technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Smart City or e-mobility give us a completely different perspective on the world’s future energy? What are our actual visions and development forecasts in this matter? Who is right concerning this matter, large energy companies and some politicians, environmentalists, climate researchers and all kinds of visionaries? Is transformation based on solar energy and hydrogen a holy grail for the energy sector? The author 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 climate changes for our civilisation 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. If we are to save the Earth, our civilisation has to change its mentality and develop ideas that will not prioritise economic growth and high consumption but sustainable growth in harmony with nature. For this to happen, the way people think about energy and global transformation must also change. 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. 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. The institute, as the coordinating entity of over a dozen of high-budgeted national and European projects in the field of environmentally-friendly power engineering, has contributed to some extent to the creation of conditions required for the development of prosumer power engineering (or more broadly: civic power engineering) in our country.

Despite many years of development in the field of rotor dynamics, many issues still need to be resolved. This is due to the fact that turbomachines, even those with low output power, have a very complex design. The author of this article would like to signal these issues in the form of several questions, to which there are no precise answers. The questions are as follows: How can we build a coherent dynamic model of a turbomachine whose some subsystems have non-linear characteristics? How can we consider the so-called prehistory in our analysis, namely, the relation between future dynamic states and previous ones? Is heuristic modelling the future of rotor dynamics? What phenomena may occur when the stability limit of the system is exceeded? The attempt to find answers to these questions constitutes the subject of this article. There are obviously more similar questions, which encourage researchers from all over the world to further their research.

Instytut Maszyn Przepływowych został powołany w 1956 roku do prowadzenia badań naukowych w dziedzinie podstaw działania, projektowania, budowy i rozwoju maszyn i urządzeń służących do konwersji energii w przepływach oraz do prowadzenia związanych z tą dziedziną działań edukacyjnych i wdrożeniowych.

W gminie Jabłonna pod Warszawą powstanie nowoczesne Centrum Badawcze poświęcone badaniom i wdrażaniem technologii rozproszonej energetyki, bazujących na odnawialnych źródłach energii. Decyzję w tej sprawie podjęły właśnie władze Polskiej Akademii Nauk.