transformation

Poland’s Farewell to Coal

THE POLISH POLITICAL CLASS DOES NOT YET UNDERSTAND THAT IN AN OPEN ENERGY MARKET, A LARGE PART OF THE PROCESS CAN BE HANDLED BY THE PRIVATE SECTOR, LEAVING THE STATE TO FOCUS ON SELECTED ASPECTS OF THE TRANSFORMATION

The Polish energy sector is now on the cusp of a revolution. This is primarily due to the rapidly ageing stock of coal-fired generation units, most of which will have to be decommissioned for technical reasons within the next several years or so. At the same time, the EU's climate policy and global technical developments in the area of renewable energy sources mean that decarbonisation of electricity generation – even in Poland, which has its own coal resources – is now economically more viable than the construction of new coal-fired units.

Another strong incentive for change is the condition of the Polish coal mining industry, which, operating in increasingly difficult geological conditions, is unable to increase its productivity to a level that would allow it to compete effectively against imported coal and other sectors of the economy that increasingly offer better working conditions and better wages to miners. Therefore, both official government documents and forecasts prepared by independent expert centres emphasise the need for a significant restructuring of the Polish energy mix by 2050. At the same time, they offer substantially different opinions with respect to the issue of whether Poland will be able to decarbonise its economy fully or only partially by that date. This is of great importance for projected demand for electricity, as forecasters agree that more profound decarbonisation would be associated with higher demand for electricity as a result of the electrification of a number of economic processes in industry, transport and heating.