Today I would like to talk about renewable sources of energy (RES) in Poland. In general, there are two types of energy sources: non-renewable and renewable. Non-renewable sources are oil, natural gas, nuclear, coal, peat, and bituminous shale. Renewable energy sources are natural resources which will replenish to replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption and their usage does not lead to environment pollution. Solar power, wind power, hydropower, geothermal, biomass, and solid biofuel belong to renewable sources.
So far energy production distribution in the world looks as follows: 39% is produced from coal, 19% - from water, 16% from nuclear, 15% from gas.
There are pros and cons of RES usage: among the advantages is its infinity and the availability of resources, minor or absent pollution impact on the environment (emission of toxic waste to the atmosphere or hydrosphere), possibility to use areas that are not usable by other activities. They also do not require transportation (wind, solar, apart from biomass delivery), are easy to install and do not require expensive maintenance after. However, there are some disadvantages e.g. low energy efficiency, not efficient delivery (solar, wind, except hydro power) – expensive storage cost, strong connection with the localization of energy source, takes a lot of space to install wind power stations and solar power panels, local climate change and flooding of big areas (for large hydroelectric station installation), or the negative influence on the animal habitats.
According to the above arguments, RES could impact the area and local infrastructure in the place where it is going to be implemented, for instance in Poland. It requires the construction of electricity consumers (power stations, plans, concentrators), mass installation of solar panels and wind power stations since it occupies big areas, building of electric energy storages, mass building of small hydroelectric stations, a development of a net of loading stations for electric cars to enable broader usability, building of a new electro transmission lines and renewal of old ones. That is why implementation of renewable energy sources should be considered thoroughly.
The environment in Poland and in the entire world requires new approaches and new technologies for energy production from RES. Despite all difficulties, this area is developing pretty fast. However, it is not yet enough to cover the demand and we need to think about other new safe ways and technologies of getting energy from RES.