National Activities - Poland Renewable Energy - A Strategy For Sustainable Development.

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National Activities - Poland : Solid Biofuels : Straw : Thermochemical Conversion

Renewable Energy - A Strategy For Sustainable Development.

Introduction
A conference, as above was held at IMBER (the Institute for Building, Mechanisation and Electrification of Agriculture), Warsaw in November 1997, organised by the EC Baltic Renewable Energy Centre (EC BREC) and World Renewable Energy Network (WREN), with support from the British Council and the SYNERGY Programme of DG XVII (Energy) of the European Commission. The aim of the seminar was to present latest achievements in utilisation of renewable energy sources, identification of benefits derived from utilisation of renewable energy for the development of power engineering sector, agriculture, environmental protection, development of local communities and other key aspects of sustainable development as well as to facilitate the debate about future strategy for the development of renewable energy sector, in the context of the eventual accession of Poland to the European Union. The programme covered many aspects of renewable energy including utilisation of solar energy, wind energy, biomass, geothermal energy and hydropower as well as development of strategies for implementation of the idea of sustainable development in Poland.

Poland has a high dependency on coal, which in turn results in high carbon dioxide emissions, that exceed those in other European countries. As a major agricultural producer they also have large amounts of straw, which could be used as an alternative fuel for district heating. They are also a major grower and industrial and producer of potatoes, of which the Colorado beetle is a major pest, requiring significant fossil energy input for control. Here, further comment is limited to those aspects of the conference covering biomass energy and chemicals.

Biomass Energy

Individual contributions covered: Modern Biomass Conversion Technologies, Biomass Energy and Agricultural Sustainable Development, Present Status of Biomass Energy Utilisation in Poland and Energy Generation from Anaerobic Digestion. These individual contributions were discussed in the context of the new initiative of the European Commission to develop the renewable energy sector (see Item on the Renewable Energy White Paper). Since the European Union (EU) does not have an over-abundance of cheap, clean and reliable energy resources there is considerable dependence on imports, although the Union does have reasonable supplies of oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear. Together with renewables, these resources have to be managed well to support all objectives of the EU. So the promotion of renewable sources of energy has been a central objective of EU policy for some time. The European Council passed a resolution in 1986 that included the promotion of renewables as one of the objectives for the convergence of the Member States' energy policies. This was confirmed in the Council's Recommendation of 1988 on developing the exploitation of renewable sources of energy. With the ALTENER programme the Council for the first time adopted a specific financial instrument for the promotion of renewable sources of energy.

In January 1996, after a comprehensive analysis of the current energy situation, the European Commission published the White Paper "An Energy Policy for the European Union". This presents the Commission's views concerning EU energy policy objectives and instruments to be applied to achieve them. Three key energy policy objectives are identified; I) improved competitiveness, 2') security of supply and 3) protection of the environment. The promotion of renewable energy sources is consistent achieving all of these objectives.

At present, as the gap appears between the fourth and fifth RTD Framework programmes, ALTENER II remains the only funding for renewable energy. In the presentation it was suggested that renewable sources of energy are not playing their appropriate role in the EU. A medium to long-term stable framework for the development of renewable sources of energy, covering the political, legislative, administrative, economic and marketing aspects is needed to encourage people developing renewable energy projects. Furthermore, as the internal market develops, a EU-wide strategy for renewables is required to avoid imbalances between the Member States or distortion of the energy markets. As Poland and the other accession countries prepare for membership of the European Union, their policies will have to come into line with those prevailing in the EU. ALTENER II will be open to such countries.

Conclusions

The basic conclusions on the entire seminar, resulting from the discussions, suggest that economic and social transformations of the 90's in Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries were a demanding test for institutions and people engaged in the development of renewable energy sources. Now, following some initiatives and adaptation of the economy and institutions to new economic conditions, there are opportunities for a rapid development of renewable power engineering linked to economic growth and associated increase in the demand for energy, a slow but real increase in the prices of fossil energy and future inclusion in the price of fossil fuels external costs related to the impact of mining and utilisation of such fuels.

Advantages related to utilisation of renewable energy sources may be traced in various aspects of sustainable social and economic development. These advantages are most clearly seen at the local level where, apart from improvements in the supplies of energy to end users, renewables constitute an important element in the creation of new Jobs and additional sources for income in particular in rural areas, development of small and medium size companies and reduction of emissions from conventional, local sources of energy, As far as the central level is concern, renewables may introduce competition and support diversification and decentralisation of power engineering. Utilisation of renewable energy sources is also one of most promising options concerning the execution of the provisions of international treaties and conventions with the aim to reduce the emissions of pollutants to atmosphere (II Climatic Convention, Sulphur Protocol, etc.)

In recent years we have been witnessing an accelerated development of renewables. Most of the technologies of renewables applied in Europe have reached full technical maturity, significant part has become economically mature, and part (hydro power, technologies of biomass combustion, some technologies of thermal conversion of solar radiation energy as well as wind power plants in some locations and market niches) have reached market maturity. There appear some differences in the approach to the development of the so called network technologies of renewables (hydro power, wind power and, to smaller extent, centralised heat distributing networks based on biomass and landfill gas, as well as geothermal energy) and decentralised technologies (solar collectors, agricultural biogas stations, biomass boilers). In the case of implementation of network technologies, the introduction of preferential regulations controlling the access to transmission networks and principles for the creation of prices for energy are essential. With this respect, positive changes have taken place in Europe, and recently also in Poland. In the case of "standing alone" renewable energy technologies, it is necessary, in the same manner as it has been done in EU countries, to work out a system for the support of individual investors, making use both of the means coming from central budget but also local budgets, introduce preferential VAT rates on the equipment associated with renewable energy sources as well as launch wide educational and informational campaign. · It is necessary to integrate the activities in support of utilisation of renewables on central level and introduce this issue on a large scale to specific policies implemented in individual ministries. Basic instruments for a wide usage of renewables, as it is proved by foreign experience, are to be found on central level and not always are related to spending large amounts from central budget.

Publication details
Renewable Energy A Strategy For Sustainable Development
Edited by Grzegorz Wisniewski and Magdalena Rogulska, 1998
ISBN 83-86-64-47-0
Published by EC BREC/IMBER (EC Baltic Renewable Energy Centre, Warsaw, Poland/Institute for Building, Mechanisation and Electrification of Agriculture)