An agreement granting a soft loan from the Voivodship Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management amounting to PLN 40 million for the construction of the biomass-fired boiler with auxiliary facilities for the 50 MW power unit in Jaworzno III Power Plant was signed in Katowice on October 25, 2010.

The document was signed by Stanisław Tokarski – PKE SA Management Board Chairman and Gabriela Lenartowicz – the Voivodship Fund Chairman. The agreement ratification was carried out in the presence of Bernard Błaszczyk – Deputy Minister of Environment, Krzysztof Zamasz, Vice-chairman of Tauron Polska Energia SA and Henryk Tymowski, Vice-chairman of PKE SA.

The Jaworzno power unit will be one of the biggest units fired exclusively with renewable fuels as the energy sources. The boiler will be fired by means of the forest biomass and the so-called agro-biomass of the agricultural origin. The annual production of the Jaworzno unit is estimated at the level of 360,000 MWh. Owing to this investment, the following annual emission reductions are expected: dust by 854 kg, sulphur dioxide by 11,000 kg and carbon oxides by over 2,500 kg.

Stanisław Tokarski said that the new investment is in line with both the power industry strategy of Poland and Tauron Group as it insists in a systematic share increase of the electrical energy generated from the renewable energy sources therefore satisfying the clients’ needs as far as the ecological energy is concerned.

The new biomass-fired boiler with the auxiliary facilities, the storage and biomass-feed systems under construction in Jaworzno III Power Plant is to be put into operation by the end of 2012. The total investment cost amounts to circa PLN 230 million.