Development bank backs Polish wind farm

Photo: wikipedia

The announcement was made as Warsaw hosted the second day of the 19th UN Climate Change Conference (COP19).

The EBRD, which was founded in 1991 to help countries in the former Eastern bloc in their transition to market economies, will lend 68 million euros towards the construction of the wind farm, with the entire cost of the project estimated at 195 million euros.

The Pawlowo project will be carried out by Relax Wind Park III, a Polish branch of Portuguese firm EDP Renewables.

Poland is currently engaged in a programme to broaden its energy portfolio, and likewise to lower its CO2 emissions, with about 90 percent of its electricity currently powered by coal.

Environment Minister Marcin Korolec reaffirmed prior to this week's UN conference that Poland's exploitation of its shale gas resources would help in achieving a more environmentally friendly solution.

He insisted that besides the shale programme, “new investments” in the coal sector will bring further CO2 reduction, “because we will change technologies from old-fashioned to new ones.”

Under the terms of the Kyoto Treaty, Poland was obliged to reduce its CO2 emissions by 6 percent in 2008-2012, compared with the levels of 1988, before the collapse of communism. Poland managed to reduce its emissions by about a third in relation to the 1988 levels. (nh)

Source: Reuters