Mott's Blog

With 85% of the electricity in Poland supplied by coal, the country is in a unique position of vulnerability in Europe. While the use of coal throughout Europe is declining sharply, it is not changing significantly in Poland. Couple this fact with the steady decline in the profitability of operating coal plants,(1) and you can see nothing to suggest a very bright energy future in Poland under this policy. Recent changes in Poland also seem to clearly have stopped major new wind and PV energy capacity. What we now see in the interim in Poland are the consequences of a lack of energy diversity in the supply.  For the second summer in a row, the coal plants are struggling due to schedule maintenance in the warm weather but also due to low water levels. While the wind can also be lower in these hot and dry months, our neighbors with extensive PV capacity are seeing a nice natural balancing with the hot and clear weather. Poland does not have that asset. Even the long-term st...

We are constantly lectured in Poland about how reliable the conventional energy system is and how unreliable renewable energy is.  Reality, however, suggests that our neighboring countries with diversified energy supplies are much more secure, much more reliable and now actually cheaper. While Poland struggles with a 30-year old energy infrastructure, built by the communists who seemed incapable of building a reliable automobile, our neighbors have shifted to a large mix of renewable energy technologies that add alternative sources of power that generally compliment each other. As energy storage is also deployed all around us, the future of electricity supply seems to be alluding Poland. The government seems locked into 1960s thinking about these issues. Now a new report indicates that energy shortages may again appear in Poland in the late summer. Because, guess what, coal is unreliable under certain weather conditions (hot weather, high demand, and low water levels). ...

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.