Country Review

POLAND

Poland belongs to the group of countries in Europe emitting large quantities of CO2 . Prognoses of the Polish Ministry of Economy indicate that the emissions will grow significantly till the year 2020. In Poland, the Energy category (IPCC) appears responsible for about 96% of country emissions of CO2, estimated at 314.8 Mt for the year 2000. The Industrial Processes category comprises about 4% of total emission of this gas (12.35 Mt CO2). Large part of CO2 emissions comes from major power and power and heat producing plants (52 % of country emission in the year 2000). The share of emissions resulting from combustion of solid fossil fuels is estimated at 98% of this emission, and that of liquid and gaseous fuels – at 2%. Polish industry is mainly based on the use of hard coal and lignite and combustion of these fuels was responsible for 45% of total emissions of CO2, (hard coal 56%, lignite to 44%).

In Poland there are 72 power plants which may be classified as major point sources of emission (46 power and heat and 26 power plants). The largest are those situated in proximity of open-cast lignite mines, that is at Be³chatów, Konin and Turoszów, and in major industrial centres such as Upper Silesia. The remaining ones are dispersed throughout the country. The Be³chatów power plant has the highest share in the emission (about 10% of country emission in the year 2000). Eight plants emit from 5 to 10 Mt per year, and 19 – from 1 to 5 Mt per year, and the remaining 44 plants – less than 1 Mt/y. In 2000 year in Poland there were 28 power and chemical plants and cement kilns which were responsible for emitting over 1 Mt of CO2.

In Poland, several hundred oil and gas deposits were found. Exploitation of numerous deposits has ended or comes to the end which makes possible their reuse for other purposes. Distribution of natural gas deposits appears generally consistent with that of oil deposits. Oil and gas deposits are situated in southern Poland (Carpathian Mts and Carpathian Foreland), western and north-western Poland.

Natural gas is stored in Poland in abandoned gas deposits and salt caverns. At present 6 such underground storage sites with a total capacity of 1.2 BB m3 are in operation. Five of these are using abandoned gas deposits and the sixth – salt caverns.

In Poland the most interesting for underground storage of CO2 are sedimentary basins located on Ni¿ Polski.

The Polish Lowlands occupy the area between the Baltic Shield in the northeast, the Sudeten Mts in the southwest and Lower San River Anticlinorium in southeast. It forms an intracratonic deep filled with Paleozoic and Mesozoic sediments overlain by thin Cenozoic cover. The maximum thickness of sedimentary pile in the Mid-Poland Basin is estimated to be about 11,000 meters of which the Paleozoic suite occupies about 6,000 meters and the Mesozoic about 5,000 meters.

The most interesting in the context of underground storage of CO2 is the Permian – Mesozoic sedimentary basin which covers all central and northern Poland. 3 aquifers need special attention: low Cretaceous, low Jurassic, and low Triassic. These aquifers are very well recognized. In the Permian – Mesozoic basin tens of elevated structures were recognized and some of them, after detailed analysis of geological – deposit data, could be used for underground storage purposes.

The Kyoto protocol was ratified by Poland in 2002 and obliges the country to reach GHGs emission by 2008-2012 of no more than 94% of 1990 levels. Recent emissions are about 321 Mt (2002 – total) and 267 Mt (2002 – with LUCF) respectively. This makes 84% of the target, still thanks to a drop of energy sector, particularly decreasing of coal share in combusted fuels connected with decline of heavy industry and the resulting lower demand for energy in 1980/90s. Energy production in Poland is based mostly on the use of fossil fuels (they make 98% of electricity generation and the rest includes mainly hydroelectric power generation). In the case of heat production about 95% comes from fossil fuels combustion, 4.5 % from biomass and about 0.1% is the share of geothermal energy. As we consider the whole IPCC energy sector (electricity & heat generation; manufacturing & constructing industries; transport; other industries) the shares of fossil fuels in energy production are: 63.5% for hard coal and lignite and 31.5% for hydrocarbons. The remaining 5% make RES.

Big power, CHP and heating plants produce a substantial part of country's CO2 emissions (about 151 Mt for sources greater than 0.1 Mt, and among them 8 point sources – power plants – produce more than 5 Mt, and one of them even more than 30 Mt). Next are manufacturing and constructing industries (about 30 Mt) and then industrial processes on fossil fuel conversion (about 10 Mt). CO2 emission from these big industrial sources makes about 60% of total emission and 72% of emission with LUCF. Data on CO2 emissions are collected by organisations acting on behalf of Polish Ministry of Environment (e.g., Institute of Environment Protection), and recently in the frames of KPAU project on evaluating of possibilities of CO2 emission trading, supported by Polish Ministry of Environment.

The possibilities on CO2 storage in Poland refer mainly to extensive Mesozoic aquifers (e.g., Lower Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous are quite well explored because of their possible use as geothermal reservoirs in a number of sites), depleted (or about to be depleted) gas and oil fields (one offshore field by 2012), coalbed methane resources&coal mines and salt structures.

Underground gas storages are run by Polish Oil and Gas Company in a number of old gas fields and a salt dome. Experimental ECBM works have been implemented in Upper Silesia (FP5 RECOPOL project) and EO(G)R works are being implemented by POGC (Tarnów site).