Energy transition from the fossil fuel dominating to the one based on renewable energy sources (RES) takes acceleration with the internationally recognised need to stabilise the global warming. Therefore, there is a general consensus that the initiative of the wide use of RES is manifold in its nature making an impact not only on the environmental issues, but also adding to the so desired customer involvement and rural development as well. Rural dimension in reaching the EU targets should arguably be a priority as RES utilisation is decentralised in its nature. Despite the fact that EU with its main strategic documents gives a clear direction on RES utilisation through wider involvement of citizens, especially in rural places, there are certain grounds for stating that a current situation and future insights among EU Member States still differ. Lithuanian case was chosen to explore the sustainability gaps regarding the RES utilisation development in rural places. Literature review is employed to choose the most suitable way aiming to explore and evaluate the RES utilisation development in rural places regarding the sustainability issues. This article adds to understanding and evaluating the main obstacles of the well balanced RES utilisation development in rural places.

The research paper discusses simulation of the loading process of the vertical axis wind turbine with the permanent magnet synchronous generator. Experimental and analytical studies were done in the year 2013. The research results show that electrical load on the wind turbine generator is important for the wind turbine performance. If the load is above or below the power gained from the wind energy, the turbine operation cannot be considered efficient and its dynamic parameters fail to achieve the efficiency level at the proper operation load when the load is built up strictly in accordance with the wind energy input. In the research, 3 separate virtual electrical loading models with static, discrete, dynamic electrical load were established. MATLAB SIMULINK simulated virtual model shows the importance of usage of the right amount of electrical load in the vertical axis wind turbine with the permanent magnet synchronous generator. Final research results showed that the most effective loading process of wind turbine generator is a dynamic load.