'The new version of the national energy policy presented by the Ministry of Climate has shown the directions of changes in the area of energy until 2040. Now, specific investment decisions are needed to drive the national economy,' said the participants of the debate "Poland's Energy Policy until 2040 - Challenges and Opportunities" during the Economic Forum in Karpacz.
'A transformation is coming, as a result of which by 2030 one out of three megawatt hours of energy consumed in Poland will be green energy. By developing renewable energy sources and focusing even more on the thermal modernisation of buildings, we have a chance for massive investments and creation of 300,000 jobs,' argued Michał Kurtyka, the Minister of Climate.
The new draft energy strategy assumes the construction of a new zero-emission energy system, based mainly on offshore wind energy (with the prospect of building 8 to 11 GW of power by 2040) and nuclear energy (6 to 9 GW). 'We plan to electrify other sectors: heating and transport. Between 2030 and 2040, we want to eliminate the most air-polluting fuels in residential heating. Public transport in cities with over 100,000 inhabitants will be changed to a zero-emission one,' announced Kurtyka.
Jerzy Kwieciński, President of Polskie Górnictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo, stressed that gas would be the transition fuel in the EU energy transformation. 'It will allow us to reduce CO2 emissions. However, I do not believe that the gas in our pipes in the next decades will always be natural gas. It will change. Therefore, together with PKN Orlen, we are launching an extensive biomethane programme and we are implementing hydrogen technologies,' stressed Kwieciński.
Investments in this area were also announced by Lotos Group. 'I expect that in the next 20 years we will have a fuel mix largely based on alternative fuels. We see an increasing role of natural gas, but also hydrogen. We should work on the most effective methods of using hydrogen and at the same time create an appropriate legal framework for the use of this fuel on a wider scale,' noted Paweł Majewski, President of Lotos.
