Poland's PGE eyes 600 MW of solar at Europe's biggest coal-fired plant

• Polish utility PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna SA (WSE: PGE) on Wednesday announced plans to release 600 MW of solar, and possibly some wind power ability, at the site of its Belchatow coal-fired power plant in Lodz Province, main Poland.

Under the strategy, the utility will certainly install the photovoltaic or pv (PV) parks by the end of 2024 and potentially around 100 MW of onshore wind generators within five to 7 years. It clarified, nevertheless, that the wind plan depends on a governmental decision to ease existing policies for the installation of turbines near to property residences and secured locations. Strategies to change the guidelines on wind turbine range are in progress.

The PV plants will cover a location of over 500 ha (1,236 acres). Some of them will be installed near the coal-fired facility's combustion waste landfill.

PGE's proposal becomes part of the business's strategy to change the 4.93-GW lignite-fired power complicated, which is the biggest thermal power station in Europe however additionally the largest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the EU. The capability will be progressively terminated and also changed by tidy power.

"The prepared photovoltaic and also wind projects are our payment to the improvement of Belchatow, which will certainly transform from an area traditionally associated with mining and also traditional generation in a low and also absolutely no-- emission instructions," claimed Marcin Karlikowski, president of the management board of PGE Energia Odnawialna.

In 2014, PGE said it will offer 100% energy from renewables in 2050, according to the goal to be climate neutral already. It then embraced an improvement plan under which its core organization will certainly transform to renewables generation, low- as well as zero-carbon area heating, trustworthy network infrastructure as well as modern energy services.

Over the next one decade, PGE means to set up 2.5 GW offshore wind, 3 GW of solar and at least 1 GW of onshore wind ability.