Currently, Poland produces most of its energy from coal. The production of energy from renewable sources is growing successively. Can Poland obtain 100% of energy from renewable sources?
It certainly can by simply following the examples of Germany and the UK, then going even further into wind power. The mess that has occurred in these two countries ought to be an object lesson in the foolishness of unreliable power sources for anyone! Fortunately for Germany, unlike the UK, they did not destroy their coal fired power plant in their virtue signalling zeal.
Poland has loads of coal and probably associated frackable gas: my recommendation would be to make the most of them.
According to the IEA report entitled Poland 2022 Energy Policy Review, Poland’s energy supply remains dominated by fossil fuel (85% of TES in 2020), with the largest share coming from coal (40%), followed by oil (28%) and natural gas (17%). Coal plays a central role in Poland’s energy system and economy. Among IEA member countries in 2020, Poland had the highest shares of coal in energy production, TES, TFC, and electricity generation and the second-highest share in heat production. The high shares of coal place Poland second among IEA member countries for CO2 intensity of energy supply and fourth for CO2 intensity of GDP. The role of coal in Poland’s energy system declined from 2010 to 2020; the share of coal fell in TES, electricity generation, district heating, and TFC. Coal production is also declining, and since 2017 Poland has been a net coal importer. However, coal demand increased significantly in 2021, with coal-fired electricity generation bouncing back to 80% of total generation. Despite the continued dominance of coal, Poland has had notable success in pushing for an energy transition. Government support for solar photovoltaics (PV) has made Poland one of the fastest-growing PV markets in the EU. From 2016 to 2021, Poland’s PV capacity increased from just 0.2 gigawatts (GW) to 7.7 GW, driven mostly by the residential deployment of small-scale distributed PV systems (5.9 GW). Poland also has a comprehensive and well-designed offshore wind strategy that has resulted in deals for 5.9 GW of capacity to come online by 2027 and plans for at least 11 GW by 2040. The target for 2030 is that the share of renewables for electricity generation to reach 32%. The government estimates that modernizing the energy sector and achieving the NECP’s 2030 targets will require EUR 195 billion from 2021 to 2030 (around 3.5% of annual GDP) and that the cost of energy transition from 2021 to 2040 could reach EUR 350 billion. The government expects that most investments to support the energy transition will come from the private sector but that public funding will also make a notable contribution. The EPP2040 does not define a year for Poland to achieve climate neutrality.
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