KARPACZ (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th September, 2020) Poland plans to shift to clean energy production within the next two decades, away from a coal-dominated electricity production, Climate Minister Michal Kurtyka announced Tuesday.
"In the next 20 years, we must build a new, zero-emission system with the same capacity as the traditional [power sources] we have today," he said during an economic forum in Karpacz.
The majority of Poland's power generators are at least three decades old, the minister said. They are to be gradually replaced with marine, wind and nuclear capacities.
Speaking about the future of natural gas in Poland, Jerzy Kwiecinski, the CEO of the country's state-run energy giant PGNiG, said he did not expect Poland to hold on to this energy source past 2030.
"We do not think that the gas flowing through our pipelines in 10 years will be natural gas," he said, adding the company was looking at biomethane and hydrogen fuel.
Poland relies on Russia for more than a half of its gas imports but has been negotiating with the United States to buy more American liquefied natural gas. Its contract with Russia's Gazprom expires in 2022 and Warsaw said it did not plan to extend the deal.
