The war in Ukraine may temporarily change our needs regarding energy sources, but in the long term we will stick to the direction of “Green Europe”, said the participants of the debate “Green transformation of Europe” during the Congress 590.
Vice President of the Management Board for Investments and Innovation of Grupa Lotos S.A., Jarosław Wróbel explained that the war in Ukraine issued several challenges to us:
“The most important of them is ensuring the energy security of the state in the area of fuel supply and distribution of these fuels for individual customers and businesses. This is the main task that we are dealing with as Grupa Lotos now. We implement the state’s energy security policy. Certainly, each such conflict shows us directly how important the production and distribution of new types of fuel is. The Lotos Group specializes in the production and distribution of hydrogen.
He added that Grupa Lotos prepares an investment in the construction of a 100 MW electrolyzer.
“It will use energy from offshore wind farms to produce green transport hydrogen”, said Vice President of the Management Board for Investments and Innovation Jarosław Wróbel. “As part of cooperation in the area of a multi-energy concern, one of the hydrogen centers is to be located in Gdańsk, on the premises of the Lotos Group. It will be a center for the production and distribution of hydrogen for the needs of rail and road transport, mainly in Pomerania, the region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.”
According to Vice President Wróbel, biomethane is another great challenge and at the same time, a great opportunity for the energy sector.
“We estimate that we can produce approximately 4 billion cubic meters of biomethane within 10 years in Poland based on our raw materials. This would constitute approx. 20% of domestic consumption of natural gas”, he explained.
On the other hand, the President of the Management Board of Bank Ochrony Środowiska, Wojciech Hann said that the war in Ukraine is a reason for the arousal of certain questions. We need to decide what is more important – sustainable development or security.
“Safety is more important in the short term. First, we must survive these hard times and cope with all issues, then provide electricity, gas, and oil. However, in the long term, it does not change the direction to live in a green, less emitting, and less harmful world. This situation might seem like a step backward, but perhaps it is a situation where we step 2 steps forward but we perceive it wrongly at first. Certainly, the response to the Russian aggression and the suspension of supplies is not an unconditional return to fossil fuels. However, security considerations may dictate some short-term adjustments. In the long term, however, investments in renewable energy are the right answer. We do not need less of them, actually, we need more investments.”
Vice President of the Management Board of Grupa Azoty S.A., Grzegorz Kądzielawski announced that his company will carry out several investments aimed at the full energy mix.
“We are going to spend PLN 2.76 billion launching projects related to the energy and climate transformation of Grupa Azoty, which will practically allow us to reduce energy expenditure by PLN 200 million per year. I would like to emphasize that despite the high prices, we have not stopped production for a moment. We care about food safety in Poland and on the continent. I would like to point out that our competitors stopped production because of high gas prices, and we did not.”
The entire conversation in Polish is included in the video below.