From coal to atom – workshops at the Silesian University of Technology
As part of the DEsire project conducted at the Faculty of Energy and Environmental Engineering, the aim of which is to develop a Polish plan for decarbonization of energy, a seminar and workshops on issues related to the Coal-to-Nuclear path were held at the Centre for New Technologies of the Silesian University of Technology.
More than ninety experts representing energy groups, technology providers, industry, regulators, and the social side took part in the seminar “Technical issues of the Coal-to-Nuclear decarbonization pathway.” The participants discussed the domestic coal energy industry, also pointing out its importance in the context of energy security. The papers discussed the subject of market analysis in terms of demand for new energy investments and the possibility of using existing energy infrastructure in nuclear investments. The Head of the DEsire project - Dr Hab. Eng. Łukasz Bartela, prof. SUT -presented the status of its implementation, and Andrzej Sidło from the Department of Nuclear Energy of the Ministry of Climate and Environment also discussed the expectations of the government administration regarding the effects of the project.
– The DEsire project is in a sense a signpost, thanks to which we can answer questions quite precisely: whether this infrastructure, which already exists today, can be used in the future, or we should look for new locations, the so-called greenfield for this type of infrastructure projects – said Janusz Kurpas, Vice-President of the Management Board of Energoprojekt Katowice SA, stressing the important role of the project in the process of Polish decarbonization. – After the project is completed, we will have a complete set of information to be used by energy groups, by decision-makers in our country. We will also join a certain international trend and some of the conclusions developed in this project will be used much more widely on the international arena.
During the session, issues related to legal regulations and legislative challenges of coal-to-nuclear investments were also discussed.
– “The Polish legal system is prepared for a wave of investments, but it is necessary to separate the law-making process from its application” – emphasized Magdalena Krawczyk from the Research Centre for Public Competition Law and Sector Regulations of the University of Silesia. “Certainly, a nuclear investor is in a better position than an investor in any other energy industry because he is equipped with all the regulatory instruments that support and promote his investments.”
The seminar ended with a discussion panel entitled “From the coal economy to the nuclear economy – barriers opportunities, challenges.” The panel was attended by, among others: Thierry Deschaux, Director at EDF SA Representation in Poland; Wacław Gudowski, Advisor at ORLEN Synthos Green Energy; Janusz Kurpas, Vice President of the Management Board at Energoprojekt-Katowice SA; Dagmara Peret, Country Director at GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy; Bogdan Pilch, Director of the Chamber of Commerce for Energy and Environmental Protection and Stanisław Tokarski from the AGH University of Science and Technology, the Energy Centre in Krakow and the Central Mining Institute in Katowice.
They discussed the expectations of transformation processes, identifying the main barriers that stand in the way of nuclear decarbonization of coal sources, as well as the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities that the coal-to-nuclear transformation opens in the economy, both nationally and locally. The national potential for co-creating the value chain for domestic nuclear energy was also discussed. The importance of well-oriented human resources training was discussed and the great role that SMR, or small modular reactors, can play in the transformation process.
In turn, the workshop inaugurated the activities of the Energy Transformation Platform, which is to improve the cooperation of entities operating for the decarbonization of the Polish energy sector, including universities and research units, as well as entrepreneurs, inventors, business environment units and entities of the State Treasury and other persons or institutions. The meetings were devoted to identification of stakeholder groups of coal-to-nuclear investments and SWOT analysis of this type of investments.
For more information on the DEsire project, visit https://projektdesire.pl/.
