Poland has been urged to double down on clean energy after Europe’s drought wreaked havoc on its coal industry.
Earlier this week (4 August) utility giant Enea was forced to reduce generation at the Kozienice and Połaniec coal-fired power plants after critically low water levels in the Vistula River limited cooling water supplies.
The move is said to have removed 1.3 GW from Poland’s power system, enough to power more than one million average households. This is around two per cent of the country’s current energy capacity.
River flow near the Kozienice Power Plant fell to just 135 cubic metres per second on 5 August, reflecting severe drought conditions.
The plant’s cooling system withdraws approximately 80–100 m³/s of water from the river – more than half of the remaining flow under such conditions.
