Ecological, economic and legal determinants of electricity production in the context of co-firing biomass with coal – An example of Poland

Abstract

The article aims to indicate the potential of biomass as one of the elements of increasing the share of renewable energy sources while limiting the use of coal, which currently dominates the Polish energy sector. The use of biomass co-firing not only reduces coal consumption during electricity production but also reduces emissions, thus contributing to reducing energy production costs. The article characterizes the ecological and economic importance of developing the method of co-firing biomass with coal for electricity production and refers to previously published works on similar topics, which addressed other external conditions such as prices of energy raw materials and significantly lower CO2 emission fees. The research conducted in the article confirms the impact of using biomass during co-combustion with coal on reducing the environmental impact in one of the largest Polish coal-fired power plants, i.e. the Dolna Odra Power Plant.