Last updated on: 2024-02-16

Clean Poland

 

  

Clean Poland Program Association is a vision to make Poland clean by means of taking care of the country, being concerned with the natural environment, air, water and the nature that surrounds us. The initiator of the establishment of the Association is Zygmunt Solorz and companies and individuals cooperating with him.

 

Today, ZE PAK's activity is focused mainly on the conventional electricity generation segment in the process of lignite combustion, however the Company is aware of the challenges that the industry will face in the near future. The changing legal and environmental conditions, rising prices of CO2 emission allowances, stricter standards regarding the emission of other substances; all of these are the requirements that conventional manufacturers have to meet, and this is an inevitable process also for ZE PAK.

 

The ZE PAK SA Capital Group is pleased and satisfied to receive the initiative of its dominant shareholder, Zygmunt Solorz, in the form of the establishment of the "Clean Poland Program" association.

 

The company has already significantly reduced its share of coal in the PAK energy mix. In 2019, CO2 emissions fell by more than 30% compared to the previous year. One of the reasons was the termination of operations by the Adamów power plant, but even in absolute terms, i.e. calculated per unit of electricity production, the CO2 emission rate of the Group dropped by almost 8%.

 

According to declarations, on June 30, 2020, two coal blocks at Pątnów power plant with a capacity of 200 MW each were shut down. Blocks 3 and 6 were put into operation in 1968/69 and worked a total of 631 thousand. hours. The capacity of Konin power plant also decreased by 93 MW as a result of putting down old coal installations.

 

Decommissioning of coal blocks in ZE PAK SA is not the first case of this type. Over the past 30 months, 1293 MW of coal capacity has been decommissioned at ZE PAK SA, consisting of 600 MW at Adamów power plant, a total of 600 MW at Pątnów power plant and 93 MW at Konin power plant. The reduction in production potential has turned in recent years into a reduction in both brown coal energy production as well as a reduction in CO2, SO2, NOx and dust emissions.

 

 

Discontinued, on June 30, 2020, from the operation of 493 MW of coal power accounted for 1.44 million tons of CO2 emissions in 2019, which means that the Group's emission in subsequent years should drop by this amount. The reduction of both the carbon footprint and emissions of other substances is consistent with the Company's declarations as a response to the initiative of the main shareholder of ZE PAK SA, Zygmunt Solorz, under the name "Clean Poland Program".

 

The Konin power plant, which has been operating a biomass unit with a capacity of 50 MW since 2012, will soon be expanded by another biomass unit of similar power capacity. Then, the power plant in Konin will become the first coal-fired power plant converted into biomass in the country. It should be mentioned that the city of Konin already has supplies that guarantee 100% of heat based on renewable energy sources from the aforementioned biomass block.

 

Last year, the Group also informed about a photovoltaic project to be located in areas, which were previously used in mining activities. A number of other ideas have been developed in the field of energy generation from renewable sources, energy storage or, e.g., production and use of hydrogen.

Some of these projects have already been submitted for a special program under the support of EU funds of regions that are heavily dependent on coal mining (the so-called "Coal Platform"). The company also joined the "Agreement for a fair energy transition of Eastern Greater Poland", whose signatories, i.e. representatives of local authorities, non-governmental organizations and entrepreneurs, expressed their willingness to cooperate in order to maximize the use of shared potential in the region's transition process. 

 

All these concepts are ambitious projects, nevertheless their implementation is burdened with a very high risk, and the investment horizon in this type of projects is strongly extended in time. Some assumptions accompanying them present a completely different picture of the functioning of individual industries that we know today. Therefore, ZE PAK shareholders must be prepared for a period when, on the one hand, the Company is facing challenges related to the coal segment, and on the other, a period of capital-consuming investments, stretched over time, which may bring results only in the distant future. Their effectiveness will largely depend on the shape of future regulatory conditions and the adaptation of new technological solutions.

The company is aware of the role that the ZE PAK SA Group plays in the country's power system, as well as in the structure of the local economy and on the local labour market. However, the responsibility the Company is burdened with forces it to be prepared for the upcoming changes. This process is already underway.

 

We invite you to cooperate with us – please sign up to the Association. You can submit a declaration on-line by filling out the form below or download and print the declaration, and then send it to the Association's address.

 

Join us!