The article presents the challenges faced by the hard coal mining sector in Poland. The biggest

challenge results from a decrease in the demand for coal, which was triggered mainly by the climate

policy, including the tightening of environmental standards and an increase in the efficiency of generating

units. The fundamental model of the MRÓWKA domestic coal market has been described.

The model allows for determining the marginal price of a given fuel for a given generating unit in

the system and the optimal mix of fuels to meet the energy demand. The results of the model calculations

for the baseline and alternative scenarios were presented. It has been shown that the optimal

distribution of coal mining capacities promotes the import of the discussed fuel in the north-eastern

part of the country and that the individual customer valuation leads to a decrease in the competitiveness

of the units located in the central-western part of the country. The paper also discusses the

potential impact of the domestic oversupply on the balance sheet and the price of coal. According

to the obtained results and the basic laws of economics, an oversupply of coal leads to a decrease

in prices. For the analyzed variants, the dependence of prices was estimated at PLN 0.0308 / GJ for

every million tons of the oversupply. The fall in prices is largely due to the fuel supply to units located

close to ports or railway border crossings. Based on the presented arguments it can be concluded

that the maximization of financial result from the extraction of coal should be based on an analysis

taking incremental changes in fuel prices into account.

The progressive processes of globalization and changes in the global, European and local economy require integrated efforts aimed at solving problems related to development at the national regional and the local level involving the environment, energy sources, climate and technological transformation issues. European Union Member States are given right to create an individual Energy mix. Coal will continue to play a major role in Poland’s energy mix during the next decades. Polish coal reserves can provide energy security for decades.

Despite crude oil and natural gas growth in fuel consumption, coal will continue to be the stabilizer of energy security for the country and play an important role in Poland’s energy mix in the years to come. However, further coal consumption requires investments in low carbon technologies which are of high efficiency and in high-efficiency cogeneration.

The validity of the full utilization of cogeneration potential should be highlighted. Operating cogeneration plants are more expensive than power plants but they are more efficient and generate less carbon emissions. In accordance with the assumptions of the Energy policy of Poland, a low-carbon economy with renewable Energy sources and nuclear Energy should be supported and developed, however the obsolete coal generators should be replaced with low-carbon high-efficient ones.

Coal in Poland is an available conventional fuel providing energy security and independence of the country. Therefore, conventional energy generation should be based on coal with the optimal development of renewable energy sources. Such a solution secures the energy supply based on coal and the independence of political and economic turmoil of global markets. Polish coal reserves can secure the energy supply for decades. Coal will surely be important for energy security in the future despite the growing share of oil and gas in energy mix. The development of renewable power generation will be possible with the conventional energy generation offsetting volatile renewable power generation as Poland’s climate doesn’t allow for the stable and effective use of renewable energy sources. Considering the policy of the European Union with respect to emission reductions of greenhouse gasses and general trends as reflected in the Paris agreement in 2016, as a country we will be forced to increase renewable energy production in our energy mix. However, this process cannot impact the energy security of the country and stability and the uninterrupted supply of energy to consumers. Therefore seeking the compromise with the current energy mix in Poland is the best way to its gradual change with the simultaneous conservation of each of the sources of energy. It’s obvious that Poland can not be lonely energy island in Europe and in the world, which increasingly develops distributed energy and/ renewable technologies as well as energy storage ones. One can notice that without renewable generation and the reduction of coal’s share in country’s energy mix we will become the importer of electricity with raising energy dependence.

The future and development of energy is one of the most important problems in both domestic and global politics. Limiting the use of fossil fuels in the energy sector results from new legal conditions related to the protection of the natural environment. These changes require the development of a new energy strategy, taking the limits of greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union and the requirements of the Community energy policy into account. One of the documents affecting the structure of Poland’s energy mix is the Directive on renewable energy sources (2009/28/EC). Poland has committed to achieving the goal of a 15% share of energy from renewable sources (RES) in gross final energy consumption by 2020. Current changes in Polish RES support systems – in particular the transition from the system of green certificates to auctions for green energy – may threaten the achievement of the above-mentioned goal. The article analyzes whether Poland will meet renewable energy obligations by 2020 under the current conditions. In addition, the article presents current energy consumption in the world and in the country, legal conditions taken into account when creating the country’s energy mix and forecasts of renewable energy demand.

The future and the development of power industry are the one of the major issues in the domestic and global policy. The impact of the power sector on the earth climate changes and the attention for sufficient funds of energy in the following years are the primary challenges which the power industry is facing. The article delineates the current state of the domestic sector of energy production. In the prospect of the next few years, it will draw on conventional power engineering nevertheless, with the growing involvement of renewable energy sources. However, it is important to develop the new energy strategy, which will point the direction of domestic energy production sector changes. What is more relevant, the new legal regulations connected with environmental protection will definitely restrict using fossil fuels in the power industry. In addition, the paper discusses the most important aspects involved in creating a country’s energy mix. The first aspect is the current state of the energy sector in Poland, i.e. the percentage of particular technologies in the present power and electrical energy balances, the technical state of the manufacturing sector’s infrastructure. Based on historical data of Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne SA regarding the energy consumption and demand, a mathematical estimation for electricity demand and its consumption forecast was performed. The obtained forecasts were then used to conduct a simulation of power and energy demand fulfillment in the national power system. Finally, several possible scenarios were presented, taking different factors affecting the energy sector in Poland into consideration.

In 2008, the European Union adopted the climate and energy package. It foresees the three most important goals to achieve by 2020 in the field of energy: 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, 20% share of energy from renewable sources in total energy consumption in the EU, 20% increase in EU energy efficiency. Therefore, individual countries were obliged to move away from fossil fuels for renewable energy production. Depending on the capabilities of each country and the development of renewable energy, various goals have been set for individual countries. For Poland, the share of RES energy in total energy consumption has been set at 15% (Directive 2009). The Polish energy policy until 2030 includes state strategies in the field of implementation of tasks and objectives in the area of energy resulting from the need to build national security and EU regulation. The challenges of the current national energy industry include increasing demand for energy and implementation of international commitments in the area of environmental and climate protection (Policy 2009). Contemporary domestic energy is characterized by a high share of fossil fuels, mainly coal, in the production of electricity and heat, and the different share of RES energy in individual technologies and energy sectors. Poland has significant natural resources, which are a source of biomass for energy purposes. Large energy units dominate in the national consumption of biomass while the share of heating plants is still insignificant (Olsztyńska 2018). The aim of the article is to analyze, based on available data and own observations of the author, the share of biomass in the national energy and heat, as well as defining factors affecting the level of biomass use in the area of Polish power industry.

It is worth mentioning that despite of the decrease of coal generation in the energy mix, the fuel remains crucial for energy sector stabilizing the energy system and securing the energy supply in Poland as well as has a positive impact on the energy security of the European Union. The development of renewable energy will be possible with conventional energy compensating the unstable operation of renewable energy sources as climate conditions in Poland do not allow for the sustainable usage of renewable energy sources and thus, their effective utilization. The modernization of 200 MW energy generating units as well as the possible construction of 2–3 similar units will enable the stabilization of the amount of electricity in the transmission grid. The modern and modernized 200 MW energy generating units are able to maintain grid operation if needed and it will be easier to phase them out gradually as prosumer energy and energy storage technologies are being developed. Due to the held and planned general and additional generation capacity auctions for years following 2020, we are assured that despite the substantial increase of distributed generation sources in Poland’s energy mix, the electricity supply to end-users will be stable and safe.

The present paper exposes how Morocco’s population and economic expansion pose a challenge to its capacity to supply energy demand, especially given how the scarcity of fossil fuels and their high market price now and in the future develop and follow strategies to achieve the objectives of sustainable development. The effectiveness of this investment and the vast number of unexploited resources have led Morocco to aim for a new ambition of obtaining 52% of its energy demands from renewable sources, making it one of the world’s leaders with regard to renewable energies. This paper analyzes the large specter of renewable energy sources and their potential in Morocco, including solar, hydroelectric, tidal, wave, and geothermal energy sources, then identifies the barriers halting its growth, going from storing and transmitting to financing, followed by the comparative costs and benefits approach.
It also assesses the country’s strategy for sustainable development, highlighting its financing, and then expands the scope of the research to explore other potential applications of renewable energy in the Kingdom, such as desalination and transportation, followed by providing a list of guidelines and recommendations on how the country can bypass the obstacles stopping it from harnessing and using these precious resources, The feasibility of these solutions were judged through a survey by the population which showed a very promising result.

A country’s “energy mix” typically evokes varying opinions among different groups within society. It also changes over time, at a pace that most energy consumers fail to appreciate. It is shifting even in Poland – certainly not a leader in the energy transition.

Is climate neutrality an attainable goal for Poland? What does the term mean, and what challenges does it pose to human civilization? These and other questions are addressed by Prof. Bolesław Zaporowski of the Institute of Electric Power Engineering, Poznań University of Technology.

In this work Response Surface Methodology and Central Composite Rotatable Design were applied to find high-energy mixing process parameters enabling flow properties of highly cohesive Disulfiram powder to be improved. Experiments were conducted in a planetary ball mill. The response functions were created for an angle of repose and compressibility index as measures of powder flowability. To accomplish an optimisation procedure of mixing process parameters according to a desirability function approach, the results obtained earlier for potato starch, as another cohesive coarse powder, were also employed. Coupling these results with those achieved in a previous work, it was possible to develop some guidelines of practical importance allowing mixing conditions to be predicted towards flow improvement of fine and coarse powders.