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Author ORCID Identifier

Marek Widera: 0000-0001-5092-2845

Wojciech Naworyta: 0000-0003-4569-3907

Paweł Urbański: 0000-0002-5440-6562

Abstract

This opinion study is devoted to the role of lignite in the Polish energy sector in recent decades, i.e., after the collapse of communism in 1989. Lignite is the primary source of electricity in Poland, second only to hard coal. More than 25–35% of Polish electricity was generated by lignite-fired power plants in 1990–2022. To meet the needs of the energy industry, 46–70 Mt of lignite was mined annually in that period. Hence, Poland was, and still is, one of the world leaders in lignite production. Despite the ongoing transition of the Polish energy sector, changes occur very slowly due to political, economic, environmental and social reasons. In the years 2021–2022, the downward trend in lignite mining, influenced mainly by the COVID-19 pandemic, was reversed by the war in Ukraine. Fortunately, there is now a great opportunity to accelerate the energy transition in Poland because of domestic political changes at the end of 2023. Nevertheless, complete independence from coal, including lignite, will not take place within the next 10–25 years, i.e., before nuclear power plants are built and the share of renewables in Poland’s energy mix increases by at least several times.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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