Mott's Blog

The last two governments in Poland have echoed a nationalistic theme on energy policy to the effect that Poland should be free to make its own choices on its energy mix. Coal is historically the overwhelmingly dominant source of power and should remain so as a national prerogative. If all of our neighbors want to have green energy as a big part of their mix, that is their choice, but not Poland's.  This is basically and fundamentally flawed logic. A new NGO study by HEAL , however, brings all of this rhetoric into focus: Poland does not own the atmosphere and has no legal, moral and philosophical right to poison its neighbors. If the shoe was on the other foot and Poland's neighbors were doing this to Poland, we can imagine the outrage of the more nationalistic Polish political voices. Unfortunately, the Polish power plants excel in emissions to the whole of Europe, causing each year more than 5,800 premature deaths, including 4690 overseas. The deterioration of health ca...

Poland's politicians have kept up a myth that the EU would allow special assistance arising from the climate and emissions trading scheme to go into modernizing Polish coal-fired power. This - as well as a diversion to general revenue - was the model from the last climate deal (whereby Poland abused the EU funding in ways that were not unnoticed in Brussels). Now the new deal has a big coffer, but the projects must go through the Environmental Investment Bank for approval. Note: EIB gave up on generally supporting coal projects more than a year ago. Thus, we have the situation - entirely expected - where the EIB will not allow this sizable fund to be used to continue projects that emit more than a small amount of CO2. "...the EIB does not intend to recommend funding any projects whose emissions are greater than 550gCO2 / kWh, which in practice excludes all coal projects. [An EIB representative] added that the emission limit can only be made more stringent. ..."   C...

The politicians cannot face the truth. But every good analyst already knows the outcome of the faltering coal sector in Poland. Less coal needed every year, higher priced domestic coal-fired electricity than our neighbors energy prices, most mining of coal cost more per ton than the market value, massive negative cash flows from the state-owned mines..... the end will not be pretty. This latest detailed article  in "High Voltage" lays out the numbers. By connecting the electricity utilities owned by the state to the mines going bankrupt the Government has basically used the financial resources of the utilities to achieve a political goal which will have a bigger economic price tag every year, before it hits bottom. The state-owned utilities have already signaled the same inevitable problem with their aging coal blocks as we have seen in Western Europe - a write-down of unprofitable assets. This occurs in the face of the Polish energy sector needing over 100 billion PL...

Apparently the problem of getting enough cooling water for the coal-fired power plants in Poland is not going away this winter. The likelihood is that residential users as well as industrial ones will be hit with restrictions on energy usage. Low water levels which will now freeze up in January will make it impossible to get enough cooling water to the coal-fired plants. Of course, our neighbors will diversified electricity providers have not reported any problems. They rely on more renewable energy which is not related to the need for massive amounts of cooling water. In fact, the PV solar element is counter-cyclical to low water levels: more sunshine/less water. Every politician in Poland has been too busy pushing the hopeless coal sector here is see the inevitable problems of 90% dependency on one type of electricity production.

The party leading the polls to take charge of the Polish Parliament (Law and Justice) has a campaign to fight wind farms in Poland. They complain about their aesthetics and possible noise issues for immediate neighbors. Law and Justice wants to ban wind farms in most of Poland by placing restrictions on their siting. This is an amazingly hypocritical viewpoint all things considered. Wind energy is gradually replacing coal in most of Europe. It could reduce coal burning in Poland as well. Even the Pope has weighed in on the need for a "rapid transition" away fro coal energy. The observed effects of burning coal in Poland are not in dispute: The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that poor air quality resulting from low emissions in Poland is the reason why an average of 48 thousand. premature deaths a year and shorten life by an average of 10 months. Link. Law and Justice proclaims that it is the Christian party and is comprised of many devote Catholics. I...