Coal-hooked Poland constructs first ever offshore wind farm

Euronews

5 hours ago

Once reliant on coal for the majority of its electricity, the country of 36 million that currently holds the EU rotating presidency is trying to reduce its dependence on the fossil fuel.
With many mines becoming unprofitable and old infrastructure in decline, the Polish government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk has planned a gradual closure of coal facilities in the south of the country. As the coal regions of the country come to terms with this shift, northern Poland adjacent to the Baltic Sea is booming.
Ignacy Niemczycki, the deputy minister in the Chancellery, briefed a handful of Brussels-based journalists on board the Jantar passenger ship, telling Euronews that the wind farm should have a lifecycle of up to 30 years and be a major part of the energy transition.
'It's in the interest of the Polish economy to invest in renewables, nuclear, and gas to stabilise the grid,' the minister told Euronews.
Situated 23 kilometres off the northern coast near Choczewo and Łeba, the wind farm is among the most advanced renewable energy projects in the Polish Economic Zone. The final installed capacity of the project is expected to reach 1140 MW, enough to supply electricity to approximately 1.5 million Polish households.
Renewables will only be one part of the Polish energy mix. Plans for the first ever nuclear plant, which will also be located on Poland's northern Baltic Sea coast, were put in place under the former Law and Justice (PiS) government and have been continued by Prime Minister Donald Tusk's current ruling coalition.
Niemczycki told Euronews that a second nuclear project is being considered and Poland is keeping a close eye on Canada as it experiments with the first ever mini nuclear plant, known as a Small Modular Reactor (SMR). SMRs could can potentially power up to 300 MW(e) per unit.
'We will see a major change in Poland's energy mix over the next 15 years,' said Niemczycki. 'Nuclear will become the new baseline, with renewables and gas providing flexibility and stability.'
A Russian missile and drone attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv overnight on Tuesday killed at least 14 people and wounded more than three dozen others, according to Ukrainian officials.
The attack is the latest in a series of mass drone and missile attacks on Kyiv. It came at a time when world leaders convened at the Group of Seven – or G7 – meeting in Canada, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to attend.
Ukraine's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko told reporters at the scene that a US citizen was among those killed in the attacks after suffering shrapnel wounds from the blast. Explosions could be heard for hours throughout the night in the early hours of Tuesday.
Thirty apartments were destroyed in a single residential block, according to Klymenko. He noted the death toll is likely to rise as emergency workers descended to the scene of a collapsed apartment building to search for bodies buried under the rubble.
People were wounded in the city's Sviatoshynskyi and Solomianskyi districts. Kyiv's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said fires broke out in two other Kyiv districts as a result of falling debris from drones shot down by Ukrainian air defences.
Canada, which assumed the presidency of the G7 this year, invited Zelenskyy to the summit, where he is expected to hold one-on-one meetings with world leaders on Tuesday.
Zelenskyy was set to meet with US President Donald Trump in Canada on Tuesday, though the White House announced that Trump would be returning unexpectedly to Washington on Monday night instead of Tuesday due to rising tensions in the Middle East.
Russia has launched a record number of drones and missiles in recent weeks. Moscow escalated attacks after Ukraine's Security Service agency executed an operation targeting war planes in air bases deep inside Russian territory.
The Ukrainian leader says little progress has emerged from direct peace talks held in Istanbul, with the exception of prisoner exchanges, expected to conclude next week.