Isra-Mart srl: Polish companies must help pay for clean coal: minister

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Polish energy companies should co-finance the development of clean coal technology because the government lacks the funds, the country's environment minister, Andrzej Kraszewski, said Thursday.

"Financing the development of clean coal technologies should not only come from the side of the government because the government doesn't have the money," Kraszewski told the industry portal wnp.pl. "Energy companies should know that if they want to survive in the market and withstand the competition they must also interest themselves in this area."

Kraszewski said Polish power utilities would soon feel the effects of the EU's emissions trading system because from 2013 they would have to start paying for part of their emissions allowances and from 2020 they will have to pay for them all.

"Each of the managers must be able to plan and predict what will happen with their companies after 2020. They must find answers to what role biofuel, clean coal technology and wind power will play in the production of energy," he said.

Poland has been considering two clean coal projects, one to capture and store CO2 from the soon-to-be-commissioned 858 MWe unit at the country's largest power plant, the 4.4 GW capacity Elektrownia Belchatow, and a 309 MWe polygeneration unit at Tauron's Elektrownia Blachownia plant in Kedzierzyn-Kozle, Upper Silesia, which will produce syngas as well as power. Polska Grupa Energetyczna which owns Elektrownia Belchatow has said the CCS project is currently uneconomic and will not proceed without substantial outside funding. One of the partners in the polygeneration project, chemical producer, Zaklady Azotowe Kedzierzyn, which was to have taken syngas from the plant, has withdrawn from the investment.