Opinions of the experts from the IPCC – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – concerning the green house effects do not sound so convincing today. It is the scientists’ viewpoint the Himalayan glaciers will not melt by 2035, or as by today we do not have any proof to believe so. There are more and more scientific studies claiming that the activities of humans do not have such a great impact on the climate change which, in fact, is something natural and of cyclic nature in the history of the Earth. Nonetheless, the European Union policy on the fight against CO2 still defines the direction of the European power sector development.

However, it seems that the power industry will significantly benefit from the above. What I think of are the new technologies, a different approach to energy generation, or the application of biomass on a large scale. Do we need to search for fuels other than coal? We do, but it is beyond question that hard coal is and will remain irreplaceable.

The European Union decided that by 2020 we will have to achieve the level of 20% of energy generated from the renewable sources. The problem is that majority of such renewable sources works in a random manner and is dependent on the weather conditions. It means that in order to secure an appropriate capacity volume one needs a huge reserve in the form of nuclear power plants and coal-fired ones. One should also bear in mind that in case of operation of many sources of such type – for example wind farms, it is necessary to provide the hot reserve in the conventional installations which can quickly supply the system when needed. Nuclear power plants cannot be used for that purpose. One is therefore left with gas and coal – particularly the hard coal. Sources to be used in peak times are also required like gas power plants, peak power plants and coal-fired power plants. One can easily see that coal-fired installations, even assuming that the climate is in fact getting warmer, will remain irreplaceable.

We, in the company, of course are getting ready for the European Union directives and for example in Jaworzno we are building a power unit firing a renewable fuel as the energy source: a complete, cutting-edge and sustainable 50 MWe power unit firing biomass. The planned boiler efficiency will equal or exceed 90 percent. The unit will be commissioned by the end of 2012. At the same time there are works underway with regard to the necessary documentation for the construction of the poligeneration power plant together with ZAK. We are also getting ready for the construction of 930 MW state-of-the-art coal-fired power units – which will be of great importance as far as the country’s energy security is concerned. And this, no doubt, is the best development direction for the power sector.

Jan Kurp