Q3 2012
Business
Renewables on the edge
Scrap cars
Climate action
Do it yourself
Not in Poland
Grzegorz Milczarek, inventor of biomass cathode
Invent the
future
USA $18 - $18CAD - POLAND 50 PLN + VAT - EU €12 - UK £11
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CONTENTS
CONTENTS 40
p / 0 6 OPINION p / 0 8 BRIEFS p / 1 4 BUSINESS p / 2 6 INNOVATION p / 3 8 GREEN BUILDING p / 4 0 INTERVIEW p / 4 5 POLICY p / 5 2 JOBS p / 5 6 COMMUNITY p / 6 0 PORTRAIT AGNIESZKA KRÓL, CEO OF ESPEROTIA
Q3 2012
Business
Renewables on the edge
Scrap cars
Climate action
Do it yourself
Not in Poland
Grzegorz Milczarek, inventor of biomass cathode
Invent the
future
USA $18 - $18CAD - POLAND 50 PLN + VAT - EU €12 - UK £11
ON THE COVER: Grzegorz Milczarek holding a biomass cathode. More on page 26 Picture: Łukasz Cynalewski /agencja gazeta
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Innovation
will change the
energy landscape
Cleantech EDITOR
WOJCIECH KOS´C´
PUBLISHER PARKER SNYDER
WRITERS JO HARPER PAWEŁ JANAS MARCIN S´MIETANA
ANALYSTS TOBIASZ ADAMCZEWSKI THOMAS SPENCER
SENIOR ADVISER PETER RICHARDS
PHOTOGRAPHY
Dear Readers, Imagine this: you’re a young mother who has just given birth. The nurse asks you if you want to plant a tree in your son’s honor. You say yes, and your son is given a bracelet. The tree gets one too, and grows along with him. Now multiply that by ten maternity wards in ten cities in ten countries. In a year, 7 million trees could be planted that sequester 7 million tons of CO2 over their lifetime. That’s our idea of a cleantech innovation. What’s yours? Write your idea up into an essay of less than 2,000 words and send it to contest@cleantechpoland.com by August 22nd. The first place winners will receive PLN 5,000 or an iPad. Full details on page 38. No one knows what will come of the correction coefficients. But in our office we’re not concerned. Instead, we’re going to focus on a subject which will do much more to change the Polish energy landscape: innovation. This is our magazine dedicated to the subject; our lead feature begins on page 28. In the spirit of the late Steve Jobs, here’s what we believe: the best way to predict the future is to invent it. Regards, Parker Snyder
4 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
SZYMON SZCZES´NIAK KATKA SZCZEPKOWSKA
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CONTENTS
CONTENTS
14
p/20
THE RENEWABLE SUPERHEROES p/2 3 Cleantech’s dirty secret p/2 4 Dueling banjos p/2 6
CLEANTECH INNOVATION BOOSTERS p/36
CONTEST:
Win PLN 5000 or an iPad
52
p/38 Property briefs p/4 0
THE ROYAL IN RENEWABLES p/4 5 Going at it alone p/4 6 Smokestack politics p/4 8
A SEXY FUTURE IN CLIMATE ACTION
p/14
RENEWABLES: DEAD OR ALIVE?
p/52 Environment and the labor market
p/17 Scrap cars: cul-de-sac p/18 Poplar fields forever
p/56 Spring business mixer: pictorial
p/1 9 Drifting to crisis
p/6 0 Portrait: Agata Hinc
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|5
OPINION
BY WOJCIECH KOSC
Tale
of two countries Neighboring Poland and the Czech Republic couldn’t be more apart when it comes to how they’ve been handling support for renewable energy. But now Prague is paying the price that Poland wants to avoid.
IN LATE APRIL, the Czech energy regulatory office (ERU) made headlines in the renewable energy industry with a statement outlining plans to do away with subsidies for new renewable projects in the Czech Republic as of 2014. By that time, the new Polish law on renewables will only have been in operation for a year, with power producers hoping new rules of support will get the market firmly on its feet. Poland-based operators should take a closer look, however, at the economic dangers the subsidies are accused of causing. As Poland is struggling to meet the intermediate European Union targets of the renewables’ share in energy consumption by 2020, the Czech Republic is decidedly on track to meet the final 2020 goal in 2013. What has pleased Brussels, however, has happened at too much cost for the Czech tax payers, electricity end users, and the companies’ competitive edge, according to ERU. That something was not working in the support system could have been seen earlier, after the generous subsidies to solar power installations made the 10-million Czech Republic the world’s fourth biggest solar power market in terms of installed capacity, ahead of China and the US. The Czech regulator points to system characteristics that first made the small CEE state a leader in renewables and then turned it into an anti-role model on how to institute a support system that will push the market forward at a
The 10-million Czech state is the world’s fourth largest solar power, ahead of China and the US
6 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
pace disregarding all speed limit signs. The ERU says that, calculated per capita, the Czech subsidies to renewables are one of the world’s highest. The subsidies translated into the cost of maintaining the support system that is no longer sustainable in the current economic context. The ERU cites countries like Germany or Spain, where support systems were also reduced because of the recession and financial crisis. Could it be that Poland was taking their cue from the Czechs? The first iteration of the proposed law on renewable energy would have put a stop to most of the support and had the businesses crying “the death of Polish renewables” (see page 14). If anything, putting brakes on the development of renewables would come far too early in Poland. Warsaw is nowhere near reaching the 2020 renewables’ share in energy consumption. The cry of the renewable businesses was effective in making the Polish government quickly come up with a new vision of support that would favor wind and solar installation over biomass, which is currently getting nearly half of the overall pool of subsidies. These “real” renewables could be getting the support they need to drive the Polish energy sector towards a better kind of sustainability, which is the actual goal, not some arbitrary EU-imposed target. Prague is going to reach the goal next year, having to deal with collateral effects of growing the system too quickly in too short a time. Perhaps the Polish government should also take into account the Czech experience. Renewable energy is of course the fuel for sustainable development, but at what cost?
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Company index A/ AgroGaz p. 31 Allegro p. 38 B/ Bank Ochrony Środowiska p. 46 Bankier.pl p. 38 Bio Alliance p. 54 C/ Car Dealers Association p. 17 Carboautomatyka p. 11 Ceneo p. 38 D/ Drozapol-Profil p. 09 E/ Echo Investment PM p. 38 Ekoenergia p. 20 Enea p. 11/20
Energa p. 11/20 Ernst & Young p. 38 ExxonMobil p. 30 F/ Frost & Sullivan p. 22/25 G/ GE p. 12 Green Bear p. 15 Greenfield Wind p. 24/53 GreenWood Resources p. 18 I/ International Paper p. 18 J/ Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa p. 11 Jones Lang LaSalle p. 13/38 K/ KBC Securities p. 22
P/ Piątnica PGE Polski Koks PP Eko R/ Relight CEE T/ Tauron Telesto V/ Vestas Vistal Gdynia
p. 54 p. 12/20 p. 11 p. 23 p. 15/24 p. 20/38 p. 25 p. 11 p. 08
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Briefs CCS gets ¤137m of support
PICTURE: NORDEX PRESS OFFICE, GOOGLESTREET VIEW, EUROPEAN COMISSION PRESS OFFICE, FIRAT TUZUNKAN'S BLOG
CCS gets €137m of support from Norway Grants mechanism Poland will receive €578.1m by 2014 in the second edition of the so-called Norway Grants financial mechanism. The capital is coming from Norway, but also Liechtenstein and Iceland. Carbon capture and storage technology are going to receive the biggest support, of €137 milion, while €110 million will support environmental protection projects, including €75 million for energy efficiency and renewable energy. Another €37m will finance research on environmental protection and climate change. The first edition of the support program, in 2004-2009, Poland received €533.3 million.
BOS stakeholder to exit The National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOŚiGW), the biggest shareholder of Bank of Environmental Protection (BOŚ), is going to take advantage of the expected rise in the bank’s valuation and sell its stake in the bank in 2013. The Fund counts on the bank’s valuation to increase following a new share issue and the growth in financing projects in environmental protection or renewable energy. On a successful issue of new shares, the Fund’s stake in the bank will drop to 56.6 percent, from current 79.1.
Vistal's wind tower plant Vistal Gdynia announced plans for a factory of underwater components of wind towers and floating tower docks for wind turbines installation in offshore farms. The PLN 90 million (€21.5 million) project will be carried out by Vistal Olvit, Vistal Gdynia’s subsidiary. The factory will be built in Gdynia.
8 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
Commission loses appeal in Polish emissions case
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on
Thursday that the European Commission exceeded its powers by imposing a tighter cap on greenhouse gases emissions in Poland and Estonia. The court thus rejected the Commission’s appeal against a similar ruling by the European Court of First Instance from 2009. In 2007, the Commission ordered that Poland and Estonia reduce the number of emission allowances granted to industries covered by the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) by 26.7 and nearly 50 percent, respectively. The EU member states were supposed to submit so-called National Allocation Plans (NAPs) to the Commission in preparation for the EU ETS’ second period of 2008-2012. On receiving the Polish and Estonian NAPs, the Commission argued that generous allocation of emissions to industries like power or steel would work against the emissions trading market, causing carbon prices to fall and therefore weaken the incentive for economies to reduce the output of greenhouse gases. Looking to reduce the overall number of emissions on the market, the Commission reduced the Polish and Estonian national allowances plans. The Polish plan was cut by the Commission to establish a cap of 208.5 million tons of CO2 emissions while Poland originally motioned for 284 million tons. The ECJ ruled, however, that the Commission could only review the plans or ask member states to resubmit them and not unilaterally establish national emission caps. The verdict didn't make a substantial difference on the bearish emissions trading market however.
BRIEFS It's the Commission vs Poland on many fronts of the climate change action
Rekarton in 2011
Drozapol-Profil to invest in wind energy
Companies in the REKARTON program, a voluntary exercise of milk and juice producers to reduce the environmental impact of their products’ packaging said that they collected and recycled 6,250 tons of packaging items in 2011, 9% of the packaging introduced to the market.
Polish steel distribution company Drozapol-Profil an-
nounced plans to invest in renewable energy generation via acquisition of a wind farm project, for up to PLN 60 million (€14.3 million). Drozapol will have completed due diligence on a project of choice by mid-July, according to stock exchange news daily Parkiet. Drozapol is eyeing projects at an advanced stage of development that could start production of energy in early 2013. There appears to be no shortage of projects, as Drozapol says that negotiations are underway with several wind developers willing to sell their projects. Drozapol would likely sell the project on upon completion, but is also considering keeping it in the portfolio to produce energy for the company’s own purposes, Agnieszka Łukomska, Drozapol’s manager of economics and finance, told Cleantech. In order to finance the acquisition, Drozapol is seeking to support its equity share with bank financing or to external investors to participate in the deal.
Commission's funding call
The European Commission is launching a €34.8 million
call for eco-innovation projects. Businesses and entrepreneurs from across Europe can apply for funding to help bring novel environmental projects to the market. The call is open to eco-innovative products, techniques, services and processes that aim to prevent or reduce environmental impacts, or which contribute to the optimal use of resources. The call for applications is open until 6 September 2012.
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PICTURE: GE PRESS OFFICE, ALSTOM PRESS OFFICE, AGNIESZKA KRÓL, INSTITUTE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY
Briefs
Grzegorz Wiśniewski and Aneta Więcka (left) of the IEO present an award to Marcin Demczuk of Vaillant
Solar Energy Industry Forum: Poland a growth leader THE SOLAR ENERGY sector’s biggest event in Poland, the Solar Energy Industry Forum, took place in April in Kraków to the tune of a moderate optimism about the sector’s future. The hard data about the market’s development in 2011 showed a growth picture: over 250,000 square meters of solar hot water collectors were sold last year, bringing the total number of installed collectors in Poland to just over 900,000 square meters, an impressive growth of 70 percent over 2010. The market’s value in 2011 was an estimated PLN 500 million (€119 milion). Poland is only one of three European markets, along with Denmark and Switzerland, that posted growth in 2011, Xavier Noyon, secretary general of the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation said during the conference. What may dampen the optimism somewhat is the future of the sector that is heavily
10 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
dependent on subsidies. The market’s growth in 2011 and previous years owed a great deal to the subsidy programs like the one from the National Fund of Environment Protection and Water Management that covered over PLN 100 million (€25 million) of installation costs of 115,000 square meters of solar collectors across Poland. The program’s future after 2014 is uncertain though, as the government is mulling a cut in the subsidies' program. One of the ideas that the conference’s participants presented to decision makers present was that the program would be continued, however, only with gradually reduced budgets, instead of a radical discontinuation that is being on the cards at this moment. The Forum was organized by the Renewable Energy Institute (IEO) and Cleantech Poland, the publisher of this magazine was the event's media partner.
Solar to edge on fossil fuels in a decade
50 MW wind farm in Bardy, Szczecin province, from Vestas, the world’s biggest turbine manufacturer. The farm consists of 25 turbines 2 MW each. The value of the transaction that will increase Enea’s renewable energy output by 150,000 MWh per year, was not disclosed. The company plans to expand the wind farm’s capacity up to 60 MW and seeks to obtain the relevant permits for additional turbines by end of 2012. According to Krzysztof Zborowski, Enea’s deputy head, the company will reach 250-350 MW in wind capacity by 2020, in line with the company's long term investment strategy. Currently the installed capacity of Enea’s wind facilities is 56 MW.
tive against energy from fossil fuels in a decade due to increasing prices of coal, oil and gas, according to former Polish minister of environment Maciej Nowicki. In terms of solar collectors’ area per capita Poland is ranked 19th in Europe. In leading Cyprus, there was 1 sqm of solar collector per capita in 2010, while in Poland the figure was less than 0.02 sqm per capita. Support from the National Fund of Environment Protection is hoped to help boost the sector, with PLN300m (€72.2m) earmarked for financing construction of solar collectors until 2014.
One of the largest Polish utilities, Enea, bought a
Solar energy would become competi-
Support cut mulled for co-firing biomass, coal The ministry of economy pledged gradual
phasing out of support for co-firing coal with biomass until 2020. The subsidies, up to PLN 460 (€110) per MWh, would drive up the rate of return on investments in co-firing to over 100 percent. In order to receive the subsidies, energy companies would need to run installations using at least 10 percent of biomass in the fuel mix. According to the Polish Association of Wind Energy, since 2006, companies have earned PLN 4.5 billion (€1.07 billion) from co-firing coal with biomass. Support reduction is still to be consulted with energy companies. Industry associations, as well as environmental organizations, criticize support for co-firing of biomass with coal as the least effective way of producing renewable energy. Poland needs 15% of energy from renewables in 2020.
Energa and Adamow team up for wind Energa Elektrownie Wiatrowe (state-
owned utility Energa’s wind energy subsidiary) and Adamów coal mine obtained consent from the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) okaying creation of an SPV that would invest in construction of wind power plants. Both companies signed a letter of intent in 2009, planning a delivery of around 80 MW wind farm within the area of former coal mine in Przykona community, Poznań province.
Biogas subsidies are on
€4,7m financing secured for a clean coal plant
and Water Management assigned over PLN147m (€35m) for subsidies co-financing investments in agricultural biogas facilities. Applications for projects, of minimum value PLN10m (€2.38m) must be submitted by 31 July. The subsidy will cover up to 30 percent of eligible costs. The support is part of Poland’s Green Investment Scheme (GIS).
tomatyka signed an agreement with Regional Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management in Katowice to finance a production facility of ecological coal-based composite solid fuel. The PLN 20 million (€4.76 million) plant will start operating in the second half of 2013 within the area of Krupiński coal mine in Suszec, Katowice region.The plant will use a new technology of modifying coking coal, developed in one of Poland’s biggest coal companies, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa (JSW). The technology reduces by 90 percent the emissions of harmful toxins, such as carcinogenic benzopyrene, dioxins and furans, from combustion of coking coal.
National Fund for Environment Protection
Polish coking coal producer, Polski Koks, and mining technology company Carboau-
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BRIEFS
Enea buys 50 MW wind farm from Vestas
Briefs
GE supplies turbines to Invenergy
GE will supply 38 of its 2.5-megawatt wind turbines for the second stage of a Poland wind power project from US developer Invenergy, getting underway in a seaside location of Darłowo, north western Poland. This is the second deal that GE has agreed on with Invenergy, having supplied 32 turbines in 2011 for the same project’s first stage. GE has also decided to set up a service and maintenance center on location.
URE warns of looming blackouts
Poland’s Energy Regulatory Office
PICTURE: NORDEX PRESS OFFICE, CREATIVE COMMONS, EUROPEAN COMMISSION
(URE) warned in May that Poland may face power shortages as soon as from 2015. The URE’s conclusions came in the office’s annual report. According to the report, a peak in modernization of old power generation units and extreme weather events could result in increased downtime of power generation installation unless energy companies step up their plans to develop new power units and modernize old ones, the URE said.
Poland denies failure in adopting nuclear safety directive POLISH MINISTRY OF ECONOMY insists that domestic legislation
is compliant with the directive on nuclear safety. The ministry reacted this week to the European Commission’s calls for Poland to adopt the directive. Poland failed to meet the July 22, 2011 adoption deadline, the Commission said. According to the ministry, however, Polish legislation was brought in line with the directive almost a year ago by a July 2011 amendment to the nuclear law. The amendment established rules on safety of nuclear facilities, handling nuclear material and spent nuclear fuel, protection against radiation and responsibility in case of a nuclear incident. The ministry claims those provisions are fully in line with primary and secondary law of European Union and the EURATOM treaty. Poland is one of few EU countries that does not use nuclear power but is pushing for the development of the country’s first nuclear facility. State-owned utility Polska Grupa Energetyczna (PGE) is the project’s investor. The Polish nuclear power program, even if still far from actually happening, is meeting criticism in neighboring Germany as Bonn is looking to eliminate nuclear power from its energy mix.
EC urges Poland The European Commission urged
Poland (also Greece and Finland) to transpose the directives on renewable energy and energy labelling to national laws. Poland had until 5 December 2010 to transpose the renewable energy directive and until 20 June 2011 for the energy labelling directive. The Commission is determined to increase the renewable energy share in the overall EU energy consumption to at least 20 percent by 2020, and improve the energy efficiency awareness. Amended energy labelling directive requires the information about energy consumption on labels of all appliances.
12 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
Small wind, slow growth
According to a recent research
from the Institute of Renewable Energy (IEO), the installed capacity of 3,200 small wind power plants in Poland was 8.2 MW at end of 2011, an increase of 1.2 MW compared to 2010. The number of installations connected to the grid in 2011 was 22, a drop from 27 in 2010. Polish National Renewable Energy Action Plan puts the installed capacity of small wind farms at 10 MW in 2012 and 550 MW by 2020. The 2012 target is within reach but without a clear support system and procedures facilitating grid connection the market is likely to struggle, the IEO said.
T o be praised PRO/CON
Property developers take green building mainstream
The Warsaw University Library kick started the move to green in property
DEVELOPERS, ONE MIGHT SAY, have a good reason to disdain green building: improvements cost the investor, while tenants benefit from smaller bills. But commercial property developers are starting to see beyond short term construction costs to the fact that green buildings retain a value premium that translates not just to lower operating costs, but to higher leasing rates and happier tenants who stick around. Five years ago, it was unclear: which way will developers go? Today, it's obvious that green building has gone mainstream. Commercial property developers deserve praise for turning the industry on its head. According to a Jones Lang LaSalle report on green building, more developers are building green than are not building green. In Warsaw alone, at least 20 commercial projects have been LEED or BREEAM certified or will be by 2014. The private sector has pushed the envelope forward. What remains to be seen is whether the economic good sense in energy efficient, environmentally friendly construction can be transferred to the public sector. There the challenge is greater, because the government is accountable for how they spend the taxpayer’s money.
T o be improved
PICTURE: JONES LANG LASALLE, CREATIVE COMMONS
The Palace of Culture needs a warm coat in winter
Love it, hate it, renovate it
IN THE CENTER OF WARSAW sits a megalomaniac syringe turned upside down, shooting the clouds with a boost of socialist-realist steroid. Despite its gargantuan footprint (it takes more than 20 minutes to get around it) and historical baggage (older Poles see it as a symbol of oppression), its been adopted into the Warsaw skyline in the same way that France has embraced the Eiffel Tower: we’d be worse off without it. Just about the only thing bigger than the square area of its base is the size of its carbon footprint. It would make good sense if it were renovated. After all, the taxpayers foot the bill for the massive amount of heat it loses through inefficient windows and an exterior building envelope that’s made largely of stone and concrete. The fact that the Palace of Science and Culture has not been renovated presents an opportunity to the city of Warsaw. What a great place to start. After all, the cost of renovation can (and usually is) set off by the energy savings accrued to the owner. In this case, the tax payers. Furthermore, the energy efficiency of public buildings is a priority of the national government; capital costs can be recovered for public buildings through the national fund, NFOŚiGW; there is none more conspicuous than PKiN. Since it’s so visible, why wouldn’t Siemens donate the power technology and Mostostal insulate the thing for free? After all, critics may disagree about what it is, but few about what it isn’t - energy efficient.
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Renewables: The story of how the new law on renewable energy was cooked in the ministry of economy suggests that involvement in renewables is as much about gambling as it is business.
BY WOJCIECH KOSC 14 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
THERE’S NO DENYING IT. The number one theme for the Polish energy sector in the last 12 months has been the new law to promote power produced from renewables. Because of the uncertainty in when the law will be passed, and what form it might take, businesses have been reluctant to embrace investment in the sector. One would think that if the new law on the renewable energy sources is an implementation of a relevant EU directive, it would contain positive solutions to push the market forward, firmly on
track to reach the target of 15.5 percent of renewables in final energy consumption in 2020. Instead, recent conferences have showed an industry staring at its own demise, as the first draft of the law was thought, mainly by wind development companies, to spell the end of the investments in the sector. According to Krzysztof Prasałek, who heads of the Polish Association of Wind Energy (PSEW), the proposed changes would result in, “a considerable slowdown in the development of
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SZYMON SZCZESNIAK
BUSINESS
“Banks aren’t looking at project development at all now because of the uncertainty regarding how these projects will function and what level of support they will receive” Marcello Deplano, Relight CEE Green Bear Corporation Green Bear Corporation, headed by Jean-Claude Moustackis (pictured), has recently sold a wind farm project to a group of private Czech investors. Upon entering the renewable
energy market in 2007, the company had plans to invest up to €2 billion in renewables in Central Eastern Europe. The global financial crisis reduced the scope of this ambition, but still the company
has now 500 MW of wind energy projects under development across the CEE region. “We’re planning to get between 40 and 80 MW of permitted projects by end of year,” Mr. Moustacakis said.
dead or alive? renewable energy in Poland.” How do you murder renewable energy? Write a law on it, Gazeta Wyborcza quipped. Indeed, the original draft proposed doing away with the fundamental rule of virtually any renewable energy system in the world, or at least in the EU: the obligation of energy suppliers to buy energy from renewable sources except for in the case of micro installations, or installations of capacity no bigger than 40 kilowatts (100 kW in the case of agricultural biogas). On top of that, the new rules which would cancel this obligation would be introduced with no transitional peri-
od, so existing installations where equity or investors’ money was involved with a view to yield a certain rate of return, would transform from assets to liabilities virtually overnight. Cleantech learned of at least one investor who would actively start looking to foreign markets once they got the wind of what was going on. In hindsight, some other investors and developers are now saying that the proposed regulation was so utterly misaimed that it just could not have taken effect. “The first draft of the law was just not going to happen, it was so strikingly anti-renewables, focusing
only on biomass and co-firing,” JeanClaude Moustacakis, CEO of Green Bear Corp, a wind developer, told Cleantech. For Marcello Deplano of Relight CEE, a wind and photovoltaics investor and developer, the turmoil about the new law didn’t stop his company from working on projects. “We’re taking the risk because it’s our job,” Mr. Deplano said. He adds, however, that until the final, and pro-development, version of the regulation takes effect, it’s going to hinder project financing a great deal. “Banks aren’t looking at project development at all now because of the uncertainty regarding how these projects will function, what level of support they’re going to get and so on,” Mr. Deplano said. SOWING SEEDS OF MISTRUST The government might have backtracked on the draft, but the seeds of mistrust have become well rooted by now, even if uncertainty has always been the name of the game in the sector, according to Mr. Moustacakis. “I hope that wind energy, which is what the development of the renewables sector hinges upon in Poland, is going to develop after all,” Mr. Moustacakis added. So it was not all that deep a
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How renewable energy is faring in other EU member states Czech Republic
Denmark
Germany
They may be reaching the 2020 EU target for the share of renewables in the energy mix, but the Czechs are now looking at the bill they’re going to pay for their achievement. Generous subsidies to renewables, particularly solar, made the country one of world’s leaders in operational solar installations. The Czech energy regulator ERU is saying now, however, that the support for renewables should be discontinued almost immediately, as of 2014, resulting in the costs of support for the sector to reach over €34 billion by 2034, the year the support guaranteed in the boom years will end. Should the support continue until 2020, the bill would reach €39 billion by 2034.
Denmark claims to have “the most ambitious energy plan in the world” in terms of implementation of renewable energy. Through its newly negotiated (March 2012) Energy Agreement, the country plans to have 35 percent of its final consumed energy coming from renewables by 2020, and all of it by 2050. In the next eight years, Denmark will be investing up to €0.47 billion annually. The scheme will be funded primarily through a security of supply tax and the Public Service Obligation (PSO), which is charged over the electricity bill. The Danish Energy Agency estimates that phasing out fossil fuels in the final energy consumption will result in savings of €0.82 billion in 2020.
While the Czech Republic thinks it has already done enough, Germany is going forward with funding their decarbonization strategy. The cost? €200 billion this decade and growing. Renewable energy is the only alternative to the fast-paced phasing out of nuclear plants and tightening emission budgets. For offshore wind, biomass, biogas and geothermal, Germany strengthens its feed-in tariff rates for 2012, while leaving onshore wind without change and weakening subsidies for solar. There is however a common understanding that there needs to be an applied degression in tariffs, which should account for the falling production costs from technological advancements over time.
sigh of relief that the industry took when a new draft came out this April. Now Mr. Moustacakis gives the government some credit with regard to how the new law will facilitate the development of the renewables’ market. “The current draft still does require some work,” he said. As the proposed regulations stand now, the obligation for energy suppliers to buy energy from renewables is back. The renewable energy companies will get a guaranteed price revised once a year.
CUSTOMIZED SUPPORT Another welcomed solution is introduction of so-called correction coefficients for various types of renewable energy. Correction coefficients are proposed as a means of providing more nuanced support to various types of energy from renewable sources. They’re calculated against 1 MW of energy from a given renewable source. For example, the correction coefficient for co-firing biomass will be 0.7, while 1.32 for offshore wind and 2 for photovoltaic installations. Hydropower installations built before 1990, so full depreciated by now, will receive no support whatsoever. If there’s anyone not happy with the shape the new law is going to take, its companies that have been betting on 16 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
To play in a game of high risk and uncertainty that the renewable energy business has been in Poland, it looks as if businesses will need to accept what they’re going to get co-firing biomass in order to get the energy they produce sold at guaranteed prices as renewable. This hardly nuanced support for renewables in Poland has resulted in co-firing biomass receiving as much as 55 percent of the state support for the sector. In financial terms, it was PLN 2.47 billion (€584 million) in 2011. Cofiring biomass has not contributed too much in the development of new energy sources because companies would rather upgrade their generation installations by adapting coal-fired boilers to take in biomass. According to Mr. Moustacakis, one of the issues that the new law should take head-on is to look one more time whether obliging energy suppliers to buy renewable energy is really going to work. He says that the fuss with different coefficient values is unnecessary. “What would work best towards the
stability of the system is the introduction of feed-in tariffs,” he said. What Mr. Moustacakis calls for is, however, unlikely to happen fast, because Poland is under severe pressure to adopt the law. Renewable energy is, after all, one of the cornerstones of the EU environmental policy. Poland is already more than a year late in adopting the law and a further delay could set the European Commission into more decisive action against Poland. The European executive body has actually been quite liberal about the Polish delays so far. Having decided to play in a game of high risk and uncertainty that the renewable energy business has been in Poland, it appears that businesses will just need to accept what they’re going to get. By comparison with what the government presented earlier it might be a reason for rejoicing. n
Scrap cars:
cul-de-sac
PICTURE: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
END OF LIFE decisions for humans are difficult, when the priorities of the dying and the grieving are at odds. Vehicles, sure enough, have no feelings of their own, but that hasn’t made getting rid of them any less of a challenge. The European Commission has zeroed in on what it says is an ailing endof-life vehicles disposal system. Because small-scale car producers and importers pay a fee they don’t bear responsibility for what happens to the cars, the Commission says. But in the drive to heal the system, the Polish government is going to apply a cure that may be worse than the illness. Three years since the European Commission first pointed to irregularities in the Polish end-of-life vehicles disposal system, Poland is now on the brink of being taken to the court and pay heavy fines unless the system is fixed soon. The fix is urgent, as an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 end-oflife cars are disposed of illegally in Poland each year. In the EU, the last call before a case is referred to the EU Court of Justice is when a member state receives a socalled reasoned opinion from the Commission. BABY OUT WITH BATHWATER In late March 2012, the Commission sent a reasoned opinion asking Poland to bring its law in line with the EU end-of-life-vehicles directive that ensures proper disposal of scrap vehicles to which Poland must respond within two months. The directive requires that professional car manufacturers and importers (of more than 1,000 cars annually) organize and finance free take-back of waste vehicles unless they are delivered without essential parts, like engines, or when take-back cost is unrecover-
BUSINESS
Poland is at odds with the EU over the system to manage end-of-life vehicles, but attempts to iron out problems could create new ones. BY M A R C I N S M I E TA N A
“The consequences of the new law could be opposite of what was desired” Marek Konieczny, Car Dealers Association able through disposal. According to the directive, individuals and small scale importers (up to 1,000 cars a year), on the other hand, should not be obliged to make financial contributions to the takeback system. Polish regulations, however, impose on them a so-called recycling fee of PLN 500 (€121) per car. The Commission’s position is that the fee breaches the end-of-life vehicles directive and has now demanded that it be revoked. The Polish environment ministry claims otherwise. Poland says that it wishes to comply with the directive and prepared the draft law amending the country’s endof-life vehicles regulations.
“There will still be the possibility to hand over a waste vehicle to a utilization facility or an authorized collection point free of charge,” Ms. Sikorska said. The new thing in the regulation is that companies introducing up to 1,000 vehicles a year should provide at least three utilization facilities or endof-life vehicle collection points. They would no longer have to pay the recycling fee. According to the Car Dealers Association, the ministry is throwing out the baby with the bathwater. The previous solution of paying PLN 500 (€121) per car is more convenient to small importers than developing utilization centres or finding them and signing agreements with them, he says. Even for big car manufacturers and importers this obligation, he insists, would be a challenge. “For small importers the consequences of the new regulations could be just opposite of what was desired,” Mr. Konieczny said. “We’re currently working together with Polish Association of Automotive Industry to find a way to suggest the ministry to implement a project with fewest negative consequences for the industry.” n
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Poplar Fields Forever
Setting up 10,000 hectares of a biomass plantation will cost over $100 million in 15 years. 18 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
To secure the supply of material for paper and power production, International Paper will develop Europe’s largest biomass project: 10,000 hectares of poplar trees. BY JO HARPER
setting up 10,000 hectares of a biomass plantation, together with its maintenance, harvesting and securing new supplies will cost over $100 million in 15 years. JOBS AND BIODIVERSITY “Current supplies of biomass in Poland are not sufficient to support the increasing demand from industry due to EU energy policy targets while existing Polish state policy limits the amount of forest fiber than can be used for biomass. Therefore, a new source of sustainable biomass must be developed to insure a stable supply at a reasonable cost to help Poland deliver on its EU renewable energy targets,” Mr. Higgins said. Apart from being a source of renewable energy, the poplar plantation will provide International Paper with raw material for paper production as well. “The model that we will use includes cooperating with local farmers via our unit Topola Lasy,” Mr. Higgins said. The agreement calls for leasing land
from local farmers to grow biomass in four year rotations. The approach offers local farmers more crop options and can improve the utilization rate of the land while securing jobs in the farming community. “Initiatives like this will create green jobs and contribute to strengthening the environment and biodiversity. Simultaneous and mutually reinforcing objectives of environment protection and economic development are at the heart of the Polish government’s policies,” Polish minister of environment Marcin Korolec said. Mr. Higgins hopes that legislation currently going through the public consultations will help support further investments that in the case of International Paper have exceeded $1 billion to date. “Legislative transparency is key for future investments in Poland and we hope that current proposals involving the new law on renewable energy will iron out some unclear definitions and reduce room for interpretation,” Mr. Higgins said. n
PICTURE: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
IN MARCH THE EUROPEAN headquarters of International Paper announced an agreement with US firm GreenWood Resources to develop the largest biomass plantation in Europe. The 10,000-hectare plantation will operate in northern Poland. “It’s a great green story and real example of a fully integrated local biomass solution,” David Higgins, head of sustainability for International Paper EMEA, told Cleantech. “The project has the potential to deliver real green jobs locally and supplement existing agricultural employment while helping Poland achieve renewable energy targets in a fully sustainable way,” he said. The total value of the deal was not disclosed. According to available estimates of biomass economics, however,
Drifting
toward crisis
BUSINESS
Old windows in your kid’s school and obsolete heating in your health center are putting the brakes on Poland’s faster development. BY WOJCIECH KOSC PHOTOGRAPHY BY S. SZCZESNIAK
POLAND’S ECONOMIC POLICY has mainly focused on coal, shale gas, nuclear, and renewable energy. According to a new study from the Institute for Sustainable Development (INE), focusing only on the energy supply and not on energy demand would be harmful in the long run. The demand side, if addressed properly, would reduce the risks of requiring constant growth and security of supply sources. The study suggests that the single most important way to relieve the economy from the burden of inefficient energy use, is taking a closer look at how buildings consume energy. The look reveals quite a bleak picture: energy use in buildings is just about as inefficient as it can get.
addressing several key economic and social issues. Mr Kassenberg says an effort in improving energy use in buildings could create up to 250,000 jobs by 2020, a welcome result in an economy where only half of the people fit for work actually have jobs, one of the worst ratios in the EU.
DRIFTING Entering many Polish neighborhoods, one will see works going to upgrade some buildings’ energy performance. Typically, workers are skimcoating thick pieces of styrofoam on the building’s facade as housing cooperatives have managed to perfect the process of getting co-financed by Polish and EU funds. According to Andrzej Kassenberg, president of the Institute for Sustainable Development, the effort has been far too insufficient. In order for energy efficiency in buildings to have a real influence on how energy is spent nationwide, it’s going to take a serious policy effort. “Unfortunately, there’s no universal, long term policy of getting the country’s buildings upgraded in order to reduce energy use. It’s been drifting all along,” Mr. Kassenberg told Cleantech Poland. The drift has proven costly. Neglecting the issue of energy efficiency in buildings is preventing Poland from
“There’s no policy of getting the country’s buildings upgraded in order to reduce energy use” Andrzej Kassenberg
SPEND LOTS, SAVE MORE The answer to the problem are energy efficiency retrofit programs. A baseline effort would involve upgrading 25 million square meters of space or three percent of non-renovated stock as of 2010. This baseline scenario would result in saving 30 percent of heating energy consumption per floor area unit, according to the INE study.
More ambitious, so-called deep retrofit programs, would see savings from 64 to even 89 percent. Their cost would be significant, however. Depending on a scenario, the cost of large-scale retrofit of buildings in Poland could be between €1.3 to even €8.4 billion annually. Costs, however, would be offset by numerous benefits. “If carried out, they would advance a broad array of other socio-economic and political agendas; bringing in co-benefits such as net employment gains, energy poverty alleviation, reduced air pollution, increased energy security, enhanced market value of real estate and provide positive effects to fiscal balance and social security spending,” the study says. n
Insist on your cooperative to carry out the upgrade of buildings in your estate. It will pay off
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Investment volume
Investment volume
Investment volume
€10-10.3 billion by 2020
€5 billion by 2020
€4.6 billion by 2015
Strategy highlights
Strategy highlights
Strategy highlights
● The company will execute a pro-
gram “to verify generation portfolio and reduce exposure to CO2” so as to increase the share of low-emission generation technologies in the company’s generation capacity. This is going to translate into a portfolio of 800 MW in wind and biogas installations in 2020.
● Enea’s corporate strategy foresees in-
vestment expenditure of €5 billion by 2020, with about 37 percent of this sum earmarked for investment in generation of energy from renewable sources and cogeneration. The group, present in the wind sector, is also planning to develop biogas capacity of 150 MW by 2020.
● The company’s strategy until 2015 is
expected to undergo a revision soon. Energa plans to build on its current strong position in renewable energy generation, owing to a substantial portfolio of hydropower installations. It also plans distributed generation projects: wind, biogas and biomass , and local hydropower plants.
The renewable
superheroes
THE LEVEL OF GUARANTEED prices set by the Polish government in its draft legislation for the domestic renewable energy sector will determine investment and other activity in the sector over the next 12 months and beyond. Poland’s four big state-owned players in the energy market - Enea, Energa, Tauron and Polska Grupa Energetyczna (PGE) - plan to invest a total of PLN 12.6 billion (EUR 3 billion) in onshore wind farms to reach a combined capacity of over 2,000 MW, or about 15 percent of total energy production, by 2020. Wind has proven the primary focus for these four players so far, as it accouts for roughly 75 percent of their renewable energy investment expenditure. Renewable energy sources in Poland contribute approximately 7 percent of Poland’s primary energy supply. Biomass accounts for 91 percent of renewables output, while 4.1 percent comes 20 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
On the Polish market, it’s the big four state-owned utilities and then everyone else. The upcoming new regulations on renewables will leave the big guns unaffected. BY JO HARPER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY S. SZCZESNIAK
from hydropower. Other renewables make up approximately 5 percent of Poland’s clean energy sources, according to GUS, the statistical office. WHAT ARE THEY COOKING? The biggest of the big four utilities, Polska Grupa Energetyczna (PGE) has a dedicated renewable energy company, PGE Energia Odnawialna (PGE EO). PGE EO currently owns only a 30 MW wind farm park in Kamieńsk, Łódź province, but has ambitious plans to expand its portfolio. Currently, PGE EO has a short term potential to develop 140 MW wind capacity, and a medium term perspec-
tive for about 1 GW in four years. About half of these projects will be conducted by PGE EO from scratch, and half will be acquired from developers. PGE EO will also need a dozen or so billion PLN for its offshore wind farm project on the Baltic Sea. The company is also planning acquisitions of wind farms abroad. Tauron Ekoenergia, the Polish renewable power company that is a part of the Tauron group, last year acquired a wind farm in Lipniki from German energy utility company WSB Neue Energien, with a power capacity of 31 MW. The company said that its bid for the Polish hydropower plant Zespół Elektrowni
BUSINESS
Investment volume
€75.5 billion by 2035 Strategy highlights ● PGE’s planned investment volume entails
PICTURE: KASIA SNYDER
projects like two nuclear power plants by early 2020s or construction of a lignite coal mine and accompanying CCS-equipped power plant in Gubin. PGE is going to move away coal as energy source too. Only 38 percent of energy in the group’s generation business will come from coal in 2035.
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Reacting to outrage from the renewable business, tellingly coming from the independents, the government tried to calm the sector down by backtracking on the controversial regulations but the uncertainty and mistrust have remained. The bill had originally been expected to enter into force in July 2012 and it now looks that January 2013 is the earliest possible date. “A delay in putting this into a law will certainly hold some investors from making immediate moves as you have to know the exact purchase prices to calculate a project’s returns,” Alina Bakhareva, Research Manager at Frost & Sullivan in London said.
PGE EO headquarters: billions in renewable energy investments on the cards
“If the government alters the renewable energy bill in an unfavorable way, investments will be put on the backburner” Robert Maj, KBC Securities Wodnych Niedzica is the first step in
its strategy to increase production from renewable energy sources. Enea, the listed Polish power group, said it wants to maintain investments in wind farms and has submitted nonbinding offers for 84 MW in total wind farm projects. By 2020, Enea wants to have 350 MW of power capacity installed in wind farms. Enea has PLN 2.5 billion in cash available, which it may use on acquisitions in the gas and renewable energy sectors, without giving up its current projects to expand its coal energy business. Finally, Energa is teaming up with brown coal producer KWB Adamów to form a 50-50 joint venture for development of wind power projects, initially of up to 40 MW capacity, with a short-term view to build more and bigger ones. Other than wind, Energa is seeking a partner for the construction of its new hydropower plant on the Vistula River. The construction of the 60-100 22 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
MW plant could cost as much as PLN 2.5 billion. TO LEAD OR NOT TO LEAD Poland is the most coal-dependent economy in the EU, therefore the EUrequirements to switch the energy production to more sustainable methods poses a greater challenge than anywhere else. There’s an EU-imposed target of renewable energy making 15 percent in the overall energy consumption by 2020. Given their financial might, the big four state-owned utilities could lead the change towards renewables. However, the same state that owns the utilities has had difficulties in getting the renewable business going. One version of the draft law on renewable sources of energy envisaged cutting state support for energy from wind by 25 percent against current levels, plus removing the obligation from energy producers to purchase energy from wind farms.
ABOVE UNCERTAINTIES “You can play with scenarios while the legislation is being approved but to go ahead with projects, most investors would require the certainty of government support,” Ms. Bakhareva said. “The focus right now is on shale gas and nuclear energy, both of which have great support from the Treasury and given that all of types - shale, nuclear and renewables require huge amounts of capex - the odds are there will be higher layouts devoted to shale and nuclear than renewables,” Robert Maj, an analyst at KBC Securities, said. There might be more attempts to dispose of wind projects as well, he adds. “If the government trims aid for renewable producers by altering the renewables bill in an unfavourable way, investments will be put on the backburner,” Mr. Maj said. The concerns lie, however, largely on the side of the independents. Mr. Maj says that if the previously floated version of the bill went ahead, it would be unfavourable for all private entrepreneurs present in Poland operating in the renewable sector, but not necessarily for the state-owned big guns. “Lifting the obligation on energy producers to purchase energy from wind farms and decreasing the support would put the state-owned companies in control of the revenue stream on the market at the expense of private investors. This in turn could deflect many potential investors away from the Polish market,” Mr. Maj said. n
BUSINESS PP EKO’s Wojciech Pietraszek: looking at the shale gas market
Cleantech’s dirty secret SHALE GAS EXPLORATION and production carries a number of environmental risks. Managing waste water that gets produced after hydraulic fracturing of the shale rock is one of them. PP EKO, a Polish environmental technology company that has grown out of an environmental consultancy back in the early 1990s, is now looking to make inroads into what could be fast-growing market that will reduce the use of water in a water-intensive industry. “Our technology allows industrial users to treat waste water in such a way so that 98 percent of it could be reused,”
The shale gas industry will need water pre-treated to get rid of heavy metals and cyanides and desalinated to a reasonable level
Upstream oil and gas production is a messy job, producing millions of gallons of briny water laden with heavy metals. Cleantech companies can do a world of wonders for oilfield operators as they help them solve this challenge. BY WOJCIECH KOSC
PHOTOGRAFY BY S. SZCZESNIAK
Wojciech Pietraszek, CEO of PP-EKO told Cleantech. The technology is named ROVAPO and comes from the process’ two key elements: reverse osmosis and evaporation. The incoming industrial waste water is pre-treated to get rid of heavy metals, suspended solids or cyanide before it goes through one or more reverse osmosis steps that desalinates the water. The so-called retentate from the reverse osmosis process, takes place in custom-made membranes, and is then pumped into a low-temperature vacuum evaporator with thermal energy recovery. Despite variable salinity, the automation system assures constant efficiency.
INDISPENSABLE SERVICE At this point, the water could already be put back into the industrial use, but some industries still require further treatment, like deionization. The end result is clean demineralized water
while solid waste only occurs as sludge during the pre-treatment and salt concentrate in the evaporator. According to Mr. Pietraszek, the shale gas industry will need water pre-treated to get rid of suspended solids, heavy metals and cyanides and then desalinated to a reasonable level, but it doesn’t have to be fully demineralized, if it’s going to be pumped back down the well. Such pretreatment minimizes the risk of scaling inside well. Mr. Pietraszek is aware that operators prefer to work with oilfield services companies who can provide a complete integrated package - not just the water treatment part. “The practice of the US shale gas market has been to control the entire process because dividing and outsourcing services have proven risky. So we’re talking to one of the major service providers to sell our technology to them while we would provide technical help and maintenance,” Mr. Pietraszek said. n
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Dueling
banjos GREENFIELD WIND’S Peter Hogren and Relight CEE’s Marcelo Deplano won’t tell you the exact location of their newest wind farm projects. Although the two companies have stepped up their cooperation on the Polish market, they are wary of the pitfalls of disclosing too much information about projects that are still in an early stage, and keep the location of the wind farms closely guarded. “You might think otherwise, but the competition could be difficult,” Mr. Hogren told Cleantech. “Independents like us are best off not disclosing too many details before the project has been secured in terms of permits and is ready to go,” he added. Indeed, while getting fairly positive attention in the media, wind project are often opposed on the ground by local residents, or sometimes by local authorities. Greenfield Wind is a Swedish firmspecializing in development of wind farms for clients in Poland and Relight is an Italian renewable energy investor with an international presence. They have partnered in that Greenfield Wind acts as the developer while Relight pays the bills at certain pre-determined milestones. INTENSIVE COOPERATION For Greenfield Wind, working with the Italian investor means that the Swedes are getting closer to having 500 MW of early stage wind power projects initiated and under development with partners during the next 12 to 18 months. Relight CEE, in turn, now has a portfolio of 20 wind projects in Poland, a third of them planned to be under construction by 2013. “The cooperation [with Relight] has been incredibly productive with a rapid development of the projects exceeding expectations. The integration of the project teams was efficient where 24 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
Swedish developer Greenfield Wind and Italian investor Relight CEE are stepping up efforts to become one of leading independent wind partnerships in Poland. BY WOJCIECH KOSC PHOTOGRAPHY BY S. SZCZESNIAK
Marcello Deplano (left) and Peter Hogren : upbeat on wind
the focus was put entirely on the projects and not the formalities,” Mr. Hogren told Cleantech. The companies are going to develop over 200 MW of early stage wind power projects in three locations in Poland by 2015. There’s also an option to add development of another 100 MW to the agreement. Mr. Hogren and Mr. Deplano go only as far as saying that the projects will be located in three Polish regions: Olsztyn, Łódź, and Opole. The Olsztyn project will total 57 MW, Łódź 54 MW, and Opole 86.4 MW in nominal capacity. Upon projects’ completion, Relight will own and operate them. During the actual development, Re-
light, apart from providing financing for the projects, will take care of the technicalities like wind measurement, site layout, or choosing the turbines. Mr. Deplano estimates the projects’ investment value at about €1.2-1.5 million per turbine, or a total of roughly €85-110 million. The initial investment is on Relight because the difficult part of the process in Poland is getting financing at a project development stage. “Later in the game, when a project is actually getting built, companies like us would turn to the banks because from the banks’ side, a project is only credible once it’s past project development stage,” Mr. Deplano said. n
ADVERTORIAL
Environmental Investment Partners (EIP)
ADAM DE SOLA POOL
“We can fund up to €1 million, but to grow rapidly many companies need an additional €5-10 million. That’s why I would like to merge our local skills with those of a global fund so that we can offer follow on financing.”
CTP: As “Pioneer Investor” in cleantech, can you tell us about its early days? AP: We have been investing in or coaching environmental and renewable energy companies since 1998. We have founded or invested in 20 companies of which 18 are still in business. Among them, many have been listed or been acquired by larger strategic partners or both. For example in Poland, Praterm built a very successful network of district heating plants and then entered the Warsaw Stock Exchange and finally was acquired by Dalkia to become the core of its heat business. Similarly we provided expansion capital to PolAqua, later listed and acquired by Dragados. In Hungary we founded Organica and eventually sold it to Veolia. In Romania we founded GazVest that was the first private retail gas company in western Romania, and via our Continental Wind Partners (CWP) investment we helped create the largest on-shore wind park in Europe at 600 MW. In the Polish wind sector we have helped to found a standalone 8 MW wind park in Lebcz, another company called Greenfield Wind and CWP. CTP: WHAT DO YOU look for? AP: Companies with experience in commercializing and developing environmental or renewable energy projects or technologies; with clear business plans and historical financials but not necessarily with revenue streams; finally - companies with a desire to grow rapidly and looking to an IPO or getting sold. A very active sector is waste to energy. Frost & Sullivan recently said
that the Polish waste collection market is currently €3 billion annually and will grow to €4.6 billion in 2017. A developer who can bring a project to the fully permitted stage will have no trouble selling it or financing its construction. EIP has invested in three renewable sectors: PV, biogas and wind and has more than tripled the returns on its investments. (See charts at right). CTP: what about innovative technology investments? AP: Historically technology investments were less common in CE but now they are showing good growth. For example GoldenSun of Slovakia has just started selling a very innovative solar PV enhancement product that has a market potential circa €1 billion. In Estonia, Goliath Wind has a potentially disruptive wind turbine product. Greenvironment, has a unique delivery vehicle for its CHP turbines. Ammono, is a well known cleantech company. Telesto, has invented a game changing nozzle for extinguishing fires. So there are lots of up and coming technology investments. CTP: What are the barriers to you or your companies’ growth? AP: The traditional venture capital “valley of death” operates in CEE as well. We can fund superb companies up to €1 million but to grow rapidly many companies need an additional €5-10 million. I would like to merge our local skills with those of a global fund so that we can offer more than just start up financing. We have worked with many large funds in the past so we are open to various modes of long term co-operation.
Country Commitments for RES Production WIND €13 bln
6.6 GW
4 GW 1.2 GW
Bulgaria Romania
Poland
BIOGAS €3 bln
980 MW
65 MW
195 MW
Bulgaria Romania
Poland
SOLAR €1 bln 303 MW
260 MW 3 MW
Bulgaria Romania
2010 Actual
Poland
2020 Committed
Grzegorz Milczarek holds a biomass cathode, a potentially revolutionary invention
26 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
I N N O VAT I O N
Cleantech
innovation
boosters Conventional wisdom has it that Poland is a mere importer of cleantechnologies. Looking closely at universities, businesses, or even state instiutions, reveals a country with a few bright ideas.
BY WOJ C I EC H KO S C, PAW E Ł J A N A S
PICTURE: ŁUKASZ CYNALEWSKI/AGENCJA GAZETA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SZYMON SZCZESNIAK
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Professor G R Z EG O R Z M I LC Z A R E K
Batteries
made from wood Some scientists are raving about a cathode developed by a Polish scientist and his Swedish colleague which could be the start to an environment friendly, cheap and efficient battery. IT’S BASED ON LIGNIN, but it has nothing to do with the toilet paper, or other household products produced from wood pulp. Lignin, a basic component of wood, is a brown solid substance, insoluble in water, whose properties has for years been known to chemists. However, no one in recent years has looked at it so closely as Grzegorz Milczarek in the Chemical Technology department at the Poznań Technical University and his Swedish colleague Olle Inganäs from Swedish University in Linköping. Their achievement concerns the construction of a cathode, which takes advantage of lignin’s favorable properties for gathering electric charges (electrons). In March, the renowned Science Magazine published the results of the two scientists’ work. If all goes as planned one day they will have made
what essentially is going to be a battery from wood. CLEAN, CHEAP ELECTRICITY According to Dr. Milczarek, “the capacity to collect electric charges is not the only advantage of lignin. Lignin is a by-product of paper production. In contrast to other materials used for the construction of batteries, it won’t pose any problem in terms of recycling, which is a nightmare for environmentalists at the moment.” Lignin was not enough to create a cathode because although lignin collects electric charges, it does not conduct electricity, so the scientists used another chemical compound called polypyrrole, which has been known to scientists for at least 30 years now. As Dr. Milczarek acknowledges, this is a polymer by-product used in the petrochemical industry. Therefore it is not
Grzegorz Milczarek: hunting for electrons Grzegorz Milczarek graduated from the Institute of Chemistry and Technical Electrochemistry at the Poznań University of Technology in 1999. He received a doctorate in 1999 and a PhD degree in 2010. Mr. Milczarek’s PhD thesis was on modified electrodes used for the purposes of electrochemical detection and electrocatalysis. His work with Swedish scientis
28 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
Olle Inganas on a new kind of cathode was published in the Science Magazine on March 23, 2012. From the abstract: Renewable and cheap materials in electrodes could meet the need for low-cost, intermittent electrical energy storage in a renewable energy system if sufficient charge density is obtained. Brown liquor, the waste product from paper processing, contains lignin
derivatives. Polymer cathodes can be prepared by electrochemical oxidation of pyrrole to polypyrrole in solutions of lignin derivatives. The quinone group in lignin is used for electron and proton storage and exchange during redox cycling, thus combining charge storage in lignin and polypyrrole in an interpenetrating polypyrrole/lignin composite.
as environment friendly as lignin, but it is recycled easier than the lead from car batteries. CHALLENGES AHEAD Their cathode with the area of 2 sq. cm. was patented, but this did not put an end to challenges faced by the two scientists. “We have the results from studies proving that lignin may gather a significant amount of energy. It’s a large amount, but still not sufficient for cathodes to be used for battery production. This would require increasing their weight. The problem is that the thicker the polypropylle and lignin composite the less significant lignin’s capacity to collect and give back energy,” Dr. Milczarek said. The scientists, together with a few doctoral students, are improving their innovation. They don’t lack for ideas. The scientists want to build a cathode resembling in structure a porous pumice stone. They hope that, thanks to this conceptual design, they’ll be able to
“I would be very happy if I could some day buy an eco-friendly and efficient battery at half the price of current devices” Grzegorz Milczarek gather more energy. Unfortunately the research – as Dr. Milczarek indicates – may drag on for several years. All this hard work won’t necessarily bring about a battery. Scientists would possess only the cathode. To have the whole battery they must also work on the anode. In such case, the challenge might grow bigger, though Grzegorz Milczarek is reluctant to speak about challenges. He would like to create an anode also based on natural components. However they are focusing on slightly different material than lignin, without ruling out, however, the potential for this component to become the basis for
a new invention. “I would be very happy if I could some day walk into a shop and buy eco-friendly and efficient battery for car or mobile phone half the price of current devices,” Dr. Milczarek said. FROM SQUIBS TO SCIENCE Grzegorz Milczarek is from Gostynin, west of Warsaw. His passion for science originated in primary school. He had a fondness of walking down the street and firing popgun or detonating squibs he had made on his own, and received good grades in chemistry. Having passed his high school final exams this explosive student had no
I N N O VAT I O N
Grzegorz Milczarek in a rare moment: not in his lab and in a suit
doubts that he would chose chemistry at Poznań University of Technology. He graduated in 1999. Five years later he received his doctoral degree. A decade ago he did research in Japan. Two years ago he qualified as an assistant professor after presenting his thesis at work on using lignin as a chemical sensor that could be applied to a glucometer, which is used to determine glucose concentration in the blood and help patients with diabetes. He’s currently participating in several research projects concerning, for instance, a material other than lignin to gather energy. He collaborates with University of Life Sciences in research concerning plant immunity. Married, with one child, he used to love bicycling. Today, despite severe time constraints because of the amount of time he spends in the lab, Mr. Milczarek is managing to steal a moment to read a history book. Maybe one day a book on the history of science will contain his name. PJ n
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Mr. Nazimek’s work was shortlisted for an ENI innovation award
Professor D O B I E S Ł AW N A Z I M E K
Could the obstacle on the way towards cheap fuel be getting overcome in a Lublin laboratory? The interest from energy majors suggests that it could. IT’S HARD TO GET HOLD of Dobiesław Nazimek. In his laboratory in Lublin, eastern Poland, he’d rather not be disturbed. When he travels to Warsaw, he’s commuting between the Warsaw Technical University and the parliament, where he takes part in expert meetings of the energy commission. His work is closely watched by international energy majors like Italy’s ENI, as it could bring about a cheap and effective way of producing methanol. Cheap methanol would be a coveted development on a global scale as it could drive down the price of methanol products like gasoline or diesel fuel. 30 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
A methanol
revolution
Well, cheap synthetic fuel is an idea that everyone has been talking about for decades, without much success. Exxon Mobil, a global oil and gas major, was the first to develop an installation that would produce methanolbased synthetic fuels. Since then, there have been operating several installations in the world that produce synthetic gasoline or diesel fuel out of methanol. Still, a problem remains: producing methanol is not cheap. The bulk of his time as a scientist, then, Mr. Nazimek is spending on developing two technologies to make cheap methanol. One is a so-called methane to methanol (MTM).
The MTM method could build upon Poland’s currently top energy issue, the exploration and production of shale gas. The Lublin-based scientist is developing a technology to burn methane, the main component of natural gas, in a controlled way so that the result is not carbon dioxide but methanol. Mr. Nazimek’s team has managed to carry out an MTM experiment in the laboratory and estimate that the retail price of fuel produced via MTM technology would be at about 50 percent of the current market rate. Given that Poland has an estimated 300-700 billion cubic meters of recoverable shale gas, the potential of MTM
I N N O VAT I O N
A chemist in the service of environment Dobiesław Nazimek was born in Rzeszów in 1945. He received his Ph.D. in chemistry and habilitation in physicochemistry of surface phenomena from University of Maria CurieSkłodowska in 1976 and 1989 respectively. Dr Nazimek is an author/ co-author of several publications, patents and designs of gradientless reactors. Research areas include applications of catalysis in environmental protection: catalytic NO reduction, photooxidation of organic water pollutants, desulphurisation of exhaust gases; hydrogenolysis of hydrocarbons, methane processing, hydrogenation of carbon dioxide.
technology appears huge. If applied on an industrial scale, the technology would also end the argument that even if cleaner than coal, burning shale gas still results in CO2 emissions. In MTM method, there’s no CO2 at all. ARTIFICIAL PHOTOSYNTHESIS The other technology that Mr. Nazimek is working on could also result in a method to produce methanol, only via the process of artificial photosynthesis. Just like in natural photosynthesis, its artificial counterpart uses water and carbon dioxide, only Mr. Nazimek forces them through a purpose-built catalyst made of titanium. Add light to the process and the result is methanol. Of course, it’s easy to predict that there currently are constraints in using artificial photosynthesis, as it takes a lot of energy to carry it out. If factored in, the costs of methanol would be so high that the price of fuels obtained from it would be nowhere near today’s market prices. Promising as Mr. Nazimek’s research looks, he’s concerned that work like his doesn’t get enough support of the state. “I hope that the new long term energy strategy for Poland will take into account some of these developments so that the state could earmark financial support,” he told Cleantech. Incredible as it may sound, his team has spent on the potentially groundbreaking research not more than €50,000. “Peanuts. But still hard to get in the realities of the financing of Polish science,” he said. WK n
AgroGaz Poland’s Andrzej Ziółkowski is on the job to find a location for the first high-efficiency biogas plant in Poland.
A N D R Z EJ Z I Ó Ł KOWS K I
Higher methane
concentration
An Estonian biogas company claims that it can boost methane concentration in biogas beyond reach of traditional installations. AGROGAZ POLAND is a subsidiary of AgroGaz Estonia, looking to revolutionize the agricultural biogas market in Poland by offering a totally new way of getting gas from pig waste. “We’re now looking for the best location of our first project in Poland that will be a reference project for our partners and investors,” Andrzej Ziółkowski, AgroGaz Poland’s country manager told Cleantech. REFERENCE, BREAKTHROUGH According to Mr. Ziółkowski, not only will the project be a reference, but a breakthrough in how the agricultural biogas market will shape up in Poland. The reason is simple: the solution of treating pig waste with a burning process known as pyrolisis shoots up the efficiency of a biogas installation a great deal, about 30 percent higher than in the case of biogas production via anaerobic (oxygenfree) fermentation. “In other words, biogas obtained via pyrolisis, or burning the substrate at a temperature of 800 degrees Celsius, contains 84-87 percent of methane. In the traditional method, there’s only 58-60 percent of methane in biogas,” Mr. Ziółkowski said. By-products of
the gasification process are technological carbon and water, respectively 10 and 3 percent of the original dry pig waste, he adds. AgroGaz Poland’s mother company has a working prototype of a biogas installation set up in Estonia. After gas has been produced, it goes to an electric generator where it’s converted to electricity. The prototype installation is designed for a pig farm of about 2500-3000 pigs. AgroGaz Poland is looking to cooperate with US firm Capston to supply generators. According to Mr. Ziółkowski, the pyrolisis technology could also be applied to other organic matter, although the methane concentrations in the obtained biogas won’t be as high as in the case of pig waste as substrate. WK n
The technicalities of pig manure pyrolisis In pyrolisis, organic matter is heated to a temperature of 800 degrees Celsius in the absence of oxygen. Long-chain hydrocarbons are broken into shorter ones. Methane, carbon dioxide and other gases are obtained. Calorific value of the resulting mixture of gases is 32-34 MJ (megajoule) per cubic meter.
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DOMINIK WOJEWÓDK A
A waste
of an opportunity
Hazardous waste laying about worlwide could be made into engineering material to use as railroad ties, at a minimal cost DOMINIK WOJEWÓDKA could pass as a rock musician rather than an innovator. In front of the Warsaw’s Sofitel Hotel, his long hair is tied up, apparently the only compromise in style that he felt necessary to do for a meeting with a group of Chinese businessmen interested in his product. The product is a technology called EnviroMix, which neutralizes hazardous waste, essentially turning it into harmless industrial by-product. Eco Tech, the company that Mr. Wojewódka heads, is successfully making inroads with the technology to foreign markets like China or Armenia. It’s no wonder that these developing markets are interested in EnviroMix, If anyone’s talking to him, they surely have a problem with hazardous waste.
as they have a record of neglecting problems arising from mishandling, or not handling at all, of hazardous waste. The technology is “neutralization and recycling of substances harmful to the environment through immobilization of pollutants as thermodynamically stable phases of minerals and micro-encapsulation of organic pollutants into mineral structures.” In other words, pollutants are bound with the use of magnesium compounds, resulting in an end product that resembles concrete blocks. It’s possible to use them as such, according to Mr. Wojewódka, for example as railway ties, because the danger of the pollutants washing once they were stabilized is practically zero. The company gives a lifetime guarantee for the pollutants to stay locked in. Other advantages of the technology are that it uses standard industrial devices and does not require high capital expenditure, and it’s possible to apply it in mobile waste treatment devices. The technology was recognized by the government program to promote Polish environmental technologies, GreenEvo. WK n
Ready for the regulatory challenges Eco Tech has managed to sell the technology to the developed markets as well, like Finland and other EU member states due to the increasingly strict EU policy on hazardous waste. European regulations require that waste be neutralized prior to storage and, if possible, first undergo the recycling process at their source.
32 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
Agnieszka KozłowskaKorbicz knows well that miracles could be worked with smart promotion, like giving away bags with solar panels to charge your mobile phone.
Instead of just another conference about how innovative Polish environmental companies are, GreenEvo is opening international markets for them for real.
“IT HAS TO BE POLISH. It has to be green. It has to work,” Agnieszka Kozłowska-Korbicz said. She’s sitting in her office in the ministry of environment, from which she coordinates one of the most successful innvation promotion programs in Poland in years. GreenEvo, currently in its third edition, is a program to single out best Polish technologies that work towards environmental protection, promote them and then help companies sell them on to developing markets. Not a technological innovator herself, then, Ms. Kozłowska helps innovators sell to foreign markets. “The idea originated in opposition to putting up
I N N O VAT I O N
GreenEvo’s 3rd edition results coming soon GreenEvo might be managed from one cramped office room in the ministry of environment, but it has had an impact on the market. The program is currently in its third edition, its results to be announced in June. The companies whose technologies have been picked in GreenEvo have not only posted turnover and revenue growth, but also have been spurred to stronger attempts at R&D and, obviously, promotion. With a GreenEvo success, then, come new jobs requiring skill and providing added value in an economy that’s often derided as non-innovative and able to compete only with low labor costs.
AG N I E S Z K A KOZ Ł OWS K A- KO R B I C Z
A green project
that’s working
another boring conference that the ministry had initially thought of doing to let the world know about Polish environmental technologies. But conferences happen and get forgotten and I thought that a project focusing on particular solutions from particular companies would be better. And it is,” Ms. Kozłowska-Korbicz said. According to a report on GreenEvo’s first two editions, which took place in 2010 and 2011, the participating companies saw a growth of 58 percent in their export revenue between the first and the second edition. Companies’ overall turnover grew by 31 percent following their participation in the pro-
gram. “It’s hard to find better proof that GreenEvo works,” Ms. KozłowskaKorbicz said. DEVELOPMENT INCENTIVE She adds that a perspective to sell their products to such fast-growing markets like India or China is also resulting in the companies’ having a good incentive to perfect the technologies they have, or to work out new ones. “We take on a lot of work that these companies would normally not do, like foreign markets’ analysis so that the promotion isn’t random but takes place in markets where it will have best chance sell. The selected technologies
also get promoted not just by the ministry of environment but also the ministries of economy and foreign affairs,” Ms. Kozłowska-Korbicz said. The first edition of GreenEvo in 2010 singled out 13 technologies that Poland considered worth promoting internationally. Another 17 technologies joined the original selection in 2011. Ms. Kozłowska-Korbicz expects at least ten new innovative solutions to be selected this year, in June. The program operates on a budget from the National Fund of Environmental Protection and Water Management of about PLN 2 million (€460,000) annually. SIMPLE AND ADAPTABLE She admits that the technologies taking part in the program are not the world’s most advanced. “They’re not totally high-tech like in Germany or the UK. But that doesn’t make them any less innovative plus they have the advantage of being more easily adaptable in developing markets,” said Ms. Kozłowska-Korbicz. That said, technologies propped by the GreenEvo sign, were able to find markets not just in Russia, Ukraine, India, Lithuania or Romania, that were most popular expansion markets. Germany, Sweden, Norway, US and Canada also ranked high. At her office, among scattered papers, Ms. Kozłowska-Korbicz is busy moving to new room. That’s a task for the hands though. Her mind’s on GreenEvo’s 4th edition, deciding in June 2013. WK n
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ZYGMUNT ŁADA
Sprinklers on the ceiling could be about as destructive to company’s property as the fire they’re supposed to tackle. Solution: water mist.
Of fire
water and mist
THERE’S A PARADOX involved in companies’ obligatory fire safety instructions and the omnipresence of red extinguishers just about in every other corner. “Suppose a fire breaks out in a typical company room. Sprinklers above your head go off, pumping 80 litres of water per second. Fire’s put out all right and what next?” Zygmunt Łada, CEO of Telesto, told Cleantech.
Zygmunt Łada: the water inefficiency of fire safety systems is a major environmental concern
Not just firefighting: the many uses of water mist According to Mr. Łada, water mist could also be used to remove airborne dust particles from work environments and serve to improve working conditions for staff and machinery while at the same time vdecreasing the possibility of workplace dust explosions in places like coal mines, power plants, or quarries. Water mist could also come handy in cae there’s a need to execute decontamination or deodorization in hospitals, food processing facilities, or sewage treatment plants.
What’s next, he continues, is that the fire safety system will have pretty much destroyed all your electronics and room interior, inflicting at least the same amount of losses as the fire itself caused. “How does that translate to a company’s insurance cost?” goes another question from Mr. Łada. SAVE WATER AND PROPERTY Not only does he know answers to the questions posed above, but Mr. Łada also says that he knows an answer on how to pre-empt having to bear extra cost of putting out fire with tons of water and avoiding the extra cost of insurance that ensue. The answer is in his hands. It looks like a classic extinguisher: a red container with a nozzle. Asked to demonstrate how the extinguisher works, there goes the first surprise. Pressing 34 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
of the nozzle doesn’t result in the extinguisher’s contents being discharged in full. You can pause and resume the action at will. The secret inside the extinguisher is that it doesn’t spray powder or foam, but water. The technology invented and perfected by Telesto over the last seven years of hard work, according to Mr. Łada. Precisely it’s a water mist, or water propelled by a rotor in a way that it breaks into fine particles, their size from 25 to over 100 microns. The environmental aspect of the technology is obvious. “Instead of 80 liters per
minute going off above your head from the sprinklers, you get mere 6,” Mr. Łada said. “With water mist, you can extinguish just about every kind of fire, be it gasoline, electric devices, or a wooden chair,” Mr. Łada said. Water mist, he says, forms an isolating layer around the fire, cutting out oxygen, putting out the fire while not soaking things to render them useless. In other words, once the fire is dealt with, the damage that a company needs to see to has only been caused by the fire, not by the fire and the extinguishing effort. WK n
5
速
Water Environment Energy Transportation Facilities
More than 120 offices worldwide. CDM Sp. z o.o. | ul. Stawki 40 | 01-040 Warsaw | Poland
innovation essay contest WWW.CLEANTECHPOLAND.COM/CONTEST
SUBMIT BY: AUGUST 22, 2012
36 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
the idea
WIN
5000 PLN or an
Imagine this: you are a young woman who just gave birth. The nurse comes in and asks you, “Would you like to plant a tree in honor of your newborn son?” You say yes. A new tree is planted. Your son receives a bracelet. So does the tree, which grows along with him. Now multiply that by 10 maternity wards in 10 cities. It’s a simple model that could result in a very large afforestation program. That’s a cleantech innovation: replicable, scalable, marketable, sustainable. Write an essay about a cleantech innovation and you could win a prize: 5000 PLN or an iPad! Here are a few others: Wrocław city hall finances trams that recover their kinetic energy while braking; a local utility installs turbines that turn the slow-moving Vistula River into electricity. Or a creative new law mandates public buildings be renovated from the energy savings. The idea doesn’t have to be original or not-yet-invented, so long as it is applied in an original or novel way. Write your essay. Explain your idea. Keep the idea simple, easy to understand. It can be technical, but no jargon that couldn’t be understood conceptually by the boy in the photo. Add a drawing or a sketch or a conceptual design or a pro-forma on the business model. We look forward to reading your submission!
iPad the details Format: a text essay in English or Polish with optional supporting photos, figures, drawings Requirements: you must demonstrate that the idea is achievable, not fantasy or science fiction Length: no more than 8 pp or 2,000 words Topic: can be on any subject such a s agriculture, IT, biological science, energy, infrastructure, economics, public policy, marketing/advertising - but it must have a cleantech angle. Deadline: August 22nd, 2012 at 22:00 Submission: A WORD document emailed as an attachment to contest@cleantechpoland.com Subject line: Cleantech essay contest submission Winner Announced: September 15, 2012
the metrics Criteria 1: Does it inspire the imagination? Criteria 2: Does it promote sustainability principles? Criteria 3: The economics: can it work financially? Criteria 4: In this a novel idea? Can you google it? Criteria 5: Can this idea be applied elsewhere?
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briefs
PROPERTY
New green retail KRAKÓW. In April, Neinver
received a “very good” BREEAM certificate for its outlet center Futura Park. The retail center comprises 140 service or retail units over 44,000 square meters. It features energy saving elevators and escalators, or heat exchangers recovering energy from the exiting air stream. The project took advantage of the natural contours of the land, eliminating the need for costly earthworks.
BREEAM renovation WARSAW. In May, the devel-
oper Yareal was awarded a BREEAM “good” certificate for its renovation of the class A office building called Mokotowska Square in Warsaw. Among the environmental features of the renovation, were large windows for adequate daylight and modern HVAC controls, which allow occupants to heat and cool the space at lower cost. The building has about 8,600 square meters of office space and 1,200 square meters of retail.
JLL report on sustainability
In March, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) published a report on sustainable
development in Central and South-Eastern Europe. The report inventoried the scope of the sustainability initiatives taking place in the region, concluding that various types of green certification are becoming the norm rather than the exception, especially in Poland - one of the largest markets. According to John Duckworth, managing director of JLL, the volume of development demonstrates a big shift that’s taken place since the financial crisis. “Over 500,000 square meters of office space under construction in CEE and SEE are at various stages of application for green certification, demonstrating that the trend is now becoming the norm for future developments,” Mr. Duckworth said. “There is a “massive pipeline of projects due in 2012-2014 that are committed to sustainability,” he added. The report found that green certification usually means stronger tenants with better occupancy rates. Among the certification programs chosen by developers, the most common are LEED (US-based) and BREEAM (British in origin).
Green towers open
PICTURES: COMPANY PHOTO
WROCŁAW. First tenants moved into
Skanska’s LEED certified Green Towers complex in Wrocław. “It’s important for us to be located in an office that meets green standards,” said COO of one of the first tenants, Ernst & Young Global Services, Dariusz Sus. In order to obtain LEED certification, Skanska signed a contract with Tauron to provide energy from renewable sources, and with STETNA, who will be responsible for waste collection and recycling practices on site. Among the first tenants, the Allegro group moved several of its online internet properties, such as Ceneo.pl, or Bankier.pl, into the same building.
38 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
Echo gets ISO certified
In early April, Echo Investment
Property Management received ISO certification for its environmental management practices. ISO is a global standard applied to production and management practices. ISO norm 14001:2004 was given to Echo for its strategies for environmental protection and pollution prevention. Wojciech Knawa, director of Echo’s property management says that the ISO certification recognizes Echo’s environmental best practices. “The certificate proves that our economy is developing our ecological awareness is growing.”
GREEN BUILDING
Green building pipeline
The following projects have been completed, or plan to be completed by 2014. All green built. Project
GLA City
Katowice Business Point Sterlinga Business Center Trinity Park III Crown Square Marynarska Point Deloitte House Park Postępu Rondo 1
17000
Developer /Investor
Katowice Ghelamco
Status
Planned completion
Certificate
existing
-
BREEAM (very good)
13300
Łódź
Hines
existing
-
BREEAM
32000
Warsaw
Ghelamco
existing
-
BREEAM (very good)
16000
Warsaw
Ghelamco
existing
-
BREEAM (very good)
26000
Warsaw
Skanska
existing
-
EU Green Building
20000
Warsaw
Skanska
existing
-
EU Green Building
34000
Warsaw
Echo Investment
existing
-
EU Green Building
64000 Warsaw MGPA existing -
EU Green Building LEED Gold
Mokotów Nova Zebra Tower Oddział Deutsche Bank PBC Biuro Skanska w Deloitte House Poleczki Business Park II Green Towers A Enterprise Park Senator Business Garden Warsaw Green Corner Konstruktorska Business Center University Business Park Platinium Business Park - V, VI
Okęcie Business Park - Corius, Solano Green Horizon II Warsaw Spire Business Garden Poznań Chmielna 25 Silesia Business Park
41000
Warsaw
Ghelamco
existing
-
BREEAM (very good)
17800
Warsaw
SB Gruppe
existing
-
LEED
n/a
Warsaw
-
existing
-
LEED Gold
n/a
Warsaw
Skanska
existing
-
LEED Silver
21000
Warsaw
UBM/ CA IMMO
existing
-
LEED Gold
10640
Wrocław
Skanska
existing
-
LEED Platinium
15200
Kraków
Avestus Real Estate
under construction
2012
BREEAM (very good)
22500
Warsaw
Ghelamco
under construction
2012
BREEAM (very good)
90000
Warsaw
SwedeCenter
under construction
2012
LEED Gold
27500
Warsaw
Skanska
under construction
2012
LEED Platinium
48000
Warsaw
HB Reavis
under construction
2013
BREEAM
36000
Łódź
Globe Trade Centre
under construction
2013
EU Green Building
Ph V - 12000
Warsaw
Globe Trade Centre
under construction
2013
LEED Gold
Corius - 9100
Warsaw
Globe Trade Centre
under construction
2013
LEED Gold
18000
Łódź
Skanska
under construction
2013
LEED Gold
96000
Warsaw
Ghelamco
under construction
2014
BREEAM (very good)
80000
Poznań
SwedeCenter
permitted
2013
LEED Gold
7000
Warsaw
LHI
permitted
2013
LEED Gold
46,000 Katowice Skanska permitted n/a
EU Green Building LEED Gold
Synergy Business Park Oxygen Park Wilson Office Park Atrium One Business Garden Wrocław Green Day Malta House Green Wings
40000
Wrocław
Ghelamco
planned
2012
BREEAM (very good)
18300
Warsaw
Yareal
planned
2013
BREEAM
15000
Poznań
Globe Trade Centre
planned
2013
LEED Gold
18000
Warsaw
Skanska
planned
2013
LEED Platinium
120000 Wrocław
SwedeCenter
planned
2014
LEED Gold
n/a
Wrocław
Skanska
planned
n/a
LEED Gold
n/a
Poznań
Skanska
planned
n/a
LEED Gold
9000
Warsaw
E&L Real Estates
planned
2013
BREEAM (very good)
SOURCE: CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD, OCTOBER 2011
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Agnieszka Kr贸l
Royal The
in renewables Agnieszka Kr贸l is about to take a company public. No small feat - let alone for a woman in a male-dominated profession, who places a high value on motherhood, and who will have to battle uphill in a sector that resists change at all costs.
INTERVIEW BY PARKER SNYDER P H O T O G R A P H Y BY K AT K A S Z C Z E P KOW S K A
40 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
POLICY Agnieszka Kr贸l of Esperotia: nothing to hold her back
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| 41
“
Being a young woman in this sector poses a challenge. Often these “old men” find it hard to accept an energetic woman as their counterpart”
CT: You are CEO of Esperotia, a company whose principal investment projects to date are in agricultural biogas. So does that mean you have a background in agriculture? In engineering? In finance? AK: I began my career in marketing analysis after which I rapidly moved into financial controlling and accounting. My last position before co-founding Esperotia Energy Investments SA was as the CFO of a construction and engineering company that specialized in the energy sector. My work at EEI has taught me a lot about the agriculture sector as well but I think that I am still far from being an agricultural expert. Where did you go to school and what did you study? As a native of Wroclaw, I decided to stay close to home for my studies. I am a graduate of the Wroclaw Polytechnic University where I specialized in Marketing and General Management. I have also completed a yearlong course for CFO’s. I believe that my technical background coupled with my financial and management educa42 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
tion has prepared me for my role in the business world.
tions in Poland. This is what gave me my competitive edge.
When did you decide to go into renewable energy?
When in your life were you inspired by a role model or someone whose way of life you thought was inspirational? Is there a public figure you admire?
My business partner and EEI cofounder, Chris Jasiak, was working with a fund that was developing wind projects throughout Europe. At that point we saw the potential of renewable energy and decided that this was definitely an area that we needed to take a look at. We founded EEI in October 2008. We quickly decided that biogas had a huge potential in Poland so we began working in that direction. We spent a lot of time studying and analyzing the sector before we moved forward with our first project in 2010. At that time not many people were doing biogas projects in Poland but we saw the potential and are taking advantage of it. What’s one thing about yourself that our readers may find interesting? I love to dance! When I was in high school I was a competitive ballroom dancer. My dance partner and I won numerous awards at dance competi-
As a business woman I look to other women who are managing large companies in Poland, such as Irena Iris, who founded a cosmetics company, or Małgorzata Adamkiewicz, vice-president of Adamed, a pharmaceuticals company. What impresses me most about them is their dynamic personalities, strong character, and above all their passion for what they are doing.
“
My 9 year old son, Olek, has PV and a windmill on his window sill”
POLICY
My greatest inspiration however comes from the people around me who believe in me. On the subject of innovation, is Esperotia embracing innovation? How important is it to your business? Innovation is extremely important to us. Our investments are in a new sector in Poland and are very capital intensive. We are constantly on the lookout for innovation in our industry which can give us an edge either by increasing revenues, reducing costs or both. As still a relatively small company, we are flexible enough to take full advantage of these innovations in a way that many large players in our industry can’t. Do you think Poland will embrace a culture of innovation? I definitely think that Poland is embracing the culture of innovation. You people are forward looking and embrace new ideas and new technologies. We see this daily through the numerous phone calls and emails from students looking for internships and jobs with EEI. What about the essay contest? Do you think it’s matters to get young people putting good ideas down on paper and rewarding them? The essay contest is a great idea for young people to get involved in this
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“
The coefficients that are proposed are very positive and if they are approved should give the biogas sector a boost.”
sector. [See pages 36-37] Young people have a completely different view than their parents or grandparents did. Today’s young people are not just citizens of Poland but consider themselves citizens of Europe or even the world. They speak many languages and travel extensively. You are female in a sector dominated by men over 55. Why is the energy sector so predominantly masculine? I agree that the sector is dominated by men, however there are more and more young, smart engineers, and managers passionate about their fields. I think that this is a question of history. This is a strategic sector that is very political and still very much dominated by the government, not only in Poland but in many other European countries. In addition to this the energy sector has been dominated by engineers which is primarily a male dominated area of study. Does being female pose a challenge? Being a young woman in this sector does pose a challenge in that many times these “old men” find it hard to accept an energetic woman as their counterpart, even though I have an 44 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
engineering background. But I must say that being a woman in this sector has opened more doors than it has closed.
What’s one aspect of the proposed renewable energy law that needs changed? What’s one thing that you think will work well?
What advice do you have to young women who would like to go into technology or renewable energy?
The current proposed legislation has two major problems. The Minister can change which plants can be used as feedstock for biogas by the end of the year. This will potentially hurt the biogas sector since all biogas plants need to contract feedstock early in order to guarantee supply. Second, it’s still very unclear as to how the subsidies will be structured. With the ability to change the structure every three years, it’s not certain as to what the revenue stream for the life of an investment will be. Having said that, the coefficients that are proposed are very positive and if they are approved should give the biogas sector a boost. n
My advice is to go for it! If it’s something you like, something you can be passionate about then there nothing will hold you back. Five years ago I never would have thought that I would be the CEO of a renewable energy company about to go public but hard work and a bit of luck has gotten me to where I am now. To young women: don’t be afraid to combine your careers with motherhood. I am the happy mother of a 9 year old son, Olek. On his windowsill he is already building a small wind farm and is installing PV panels.
Going at it
alone
BY WOJCIECH KOSC PHOTOGRAPHY BY S. SZCZESNIAK
ALREADY A COUNTRY at odds with the rest of the EU about how to combat climate change, Poland is going against the grain about the technical task of trading emissions in the all-important period 2013-2020. Starting in 2013, under the third phase of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS III for short), companies will need to buy the bulk of CO2 emissions rights via auctions. In Poland and some other post-communist economies, the number of auctioned allowances will gradually increase until 2020, whereas elsewhere it will be an all-auctioning system from January 1, 2013. Auction operators, like Germany’s EEX, will be responsible for organizing emissions trading. The EU is on track itself to establish a common platform for emissions trading for most of the member states.
ACCESS CONCERNS Poland, however, is not going to offer its emissions rights on any of the international auctioning platforms. Along with the UK and Germany, two leaders in pushing towards sustainable economy, Warsaw is the only EU capital that has plans to set up an emissions rights auctioning platform of its own. It’s a move that is rising eyebrows of those knowing the system well from the inside. According to Maciej Gomółka, Poland country manager with Pravda Capital, CO2 brokers and environmental consultancy company, going it alone could make sense on certain conditions only. “Poland’s platform will make sense if the access to it is easier for the Polish companies thanks to more flexible rules of taking part in the auctions. It is the main concern of smaller companies that they won’t overcome the barriers of entry to take part in auctions. If the conditions that companies will have to meet will be the same as in the case of
POLICY
Poland doesn’t like the EU ambitions on climate change. Neither does it like the European tools for trading emissions.
What’s going to happen about the Polish emissions trading platform?
Poland’s platform will make sense if the access to it is easier for Polish companies thanks to more flexible entry rules the EU platforms, they will be an obstacle impossible to clear for many Polish firms,” Mr Gomółka told Cleantech. Another problem could be that if Poland does not organize the platform in time, the auctioning will take place via one of the international platforms, access to which could be a concern for some of the Polish buyers. “In theory, the first auction should take place in
the first quarter of 2014 at the latest. The ambitions of the European Commission were different, however. Early auctions of the EU ETS III emissions right were going to take place already in 2012,” Mr. Gomółka said. The news coming from the UK, Germany as well as from the Commission are that these auctions will take place in time, but Mr. Gomółka doubts if Poland could follow suit. “It’s a realistic scenario that it will not happen on time, and a foreign operator will eventually organize the Polish auctions. If that happens, the rationale for the Polish platform will be even more insignificant,” he said. It will only be the first auctions on the national platform that will give some clearer indication of the role it will play on the emissions trading market. It may happen, however, that many companies will not ever use the platforms at all, choosing secondary market instead, where access is easier and costs are lower. n
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BY THOMAS SPENCER*
BETWEEN 2013 AND 2020, Poland will receive between €16.9 and €29.9 billion from auctioning revenues in the European emissions trading scheme, depending on the carbon price. On an annual basis, these revenues equate to between 2.1 percent to 3.8 percent of total Polish tax intake in 2009, or 0.7-1.2 percent of 2009 GDP. Additional resources of this scale require careful reflection on their use. The ETS directive states that 50 percent of revenues should be spent on climate change activities. For Poland, a key objective should be energy sector investments that increase the flexibility of the sector. This means its ability to provide affordable and sustainable energy under multiple uncertain future scenarios. A first priority should be energy efficiency. Energy efficiency allows some investment in new production infrastructure to be delayed until uncertainty around future energy prices and climate policy is reduced. Beyond the energy expenses saved, energy efficiency thus has a hedging value. In the uncertain Polish context of a strategic choice around the future fuel mix, this value may be particularly high. VALUE FOR MONEY Existing funding instruments such as the structural funds and the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management already allocate significant funding to energy efficiency. Poland is also implementing a white certificate market to push energy savings further. These may not create, however, the conditions for large-scale refurbishment of the existing, inefficient building stock, and facilitate the involvement of commercial financial institutions (CFIs). Poland could consider using some of its auction revenues to establish a dedicated credit line for 46 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SZYMON SZCZESNIAK
thermal modernization of building stock, as Estonia has done. This would allow a public bank, like the Bank Ochrony Środowiska or Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, to lend to CFIs, increasing their experience in the energy efficiency sector. Standards could be set to incentivize deep thermal refurbishments, which may not be fully incentivized by the white certificate scheme. The fund can leverage contributions from CFIs, and loan repayments can return to the fund, allowing good value for public money. INFRASTRUCTURE, STUPID! A second priority should be infrastructure investment in electricity and gas. Expanding the electricity network is essential for including new generation sources, especially on- and offshore wind and nuclear. Expanding the gas network is essential for allowing a greater penetration of gas, which can have positive synergies with an increased penetration of energy from renewable sources. Infrastructure investments should be financed by the user through regulated tariffs. However, the size of the investment required, technological and policy uncertainties, and capital market imperfections imply a role for public policy. For example, bond instruments are used to co-finance Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego’s Road Fund. There is thus a role for governments to facilitate access to equity and debt. The European Investment Bank
and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development are key providers of debt for infrastructure projects. However, these are cutting back lending from levels during the crisis. Therefore, some of Poland’s auction revenues could be used to provide equity and debt to TSOs, and technical assistance to increase their ability to access commercial capital markets. A third priority is labor market. The OECD shows that 26.7 percent of the Polish workforce is employed in the 15 most GHG intensive sectors, compared to 13.7 percent in the EU15. These tend to be lower skill and lower wage workers with lower adaptability. This implies a greater risk of structural unemployment and labour market bottlenecks in the transition to a lower carbon economy. The government should invest in skills development and matching programs to facilitate the green labor transition. A final area involves industry. The benchmarking regulation will hit Poland’s coal intensive economy disproportionately. There is thus a case for using some of the auctioning revenues to facilitate the transition for energy intensive sectors. State aid should be acceptable were it does not distort price signals, but rather provides a subsidy for technological improvement. Auction revenues could be used to move Polish industry closer to the appropriate benchmark, hence reducing distortionary impacts of a fuel based benchmark. n
Energy efficiency allows some investment in new production infrastructure to be delayed until uncertainty around future energy prices and climate policy is reduced *Thomas Spencer is a Research Fellow Climate and Energy Economics at IDDRI
POLICY
Smokestack Close to €30 billion from auctioning carbon emissions’ rights is coming Poland’s way. What this revenue should support is obvious; what it will support is not.
politics
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A sexy future in
climate action A peep inside a recently revealed policy document reveals Poland’s own ideas on how to make the world love climate change action
BY WOJCIECH KOSC 48 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
NAY-SAYING STRATEGY has its limits. Poland went against the grain of other EU states at a crucial meeting on climate change action in Denmark and blocked a road map to agreement on an 80 percent CO2 emission cut by 2050. The Polish “no” might seem a success. Blocking further commitments to reduce CO2 emissions was certainly welcomed by the government and the coal-dependent energy and mining industries. But the climate action commissioner Connie Hedegaard was quick to say that ways could be found to circumvent the Polish opposition and push forward with an EU-wide climate
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SZYMON SZCZESNIAK
Major, however, doesn’t mean effective, Poland argues, putting forth some ideas to make the ETS an effective emissions reduction tool. If implemented, Warsaw claims, the ETS will transform from a curiosity limited to only one of the world’s regions into a sexy tool that other countries will look forward to join.
Ministry of environment. Or is it industry?
change action policy nonetheless. It would be important, then, to take a closer look at a recent Polish policy document in which Poland succintly delivers its position on the EU Emissions Trade System (ETS).
IN DOUBT Defending its coal-intensive economy, Poland has found itself on the margins of the EU climate change policy. In an attempt to come back to the mainstream discussion on climate change action, Poland is straightforward in saying that the ETS’ future is “in doubt for a number of reasons.” Still, Warsaw admits that it is still the EU’s major tool for achieving CO2 reduction goals agreed in 2008.
FULL IMPLEMENTATION First off, Poland is urging the Commission to take a frank look in the mirror and admit that the ETS is still far from full implementation in the EU. Implement ETS in full before taking it further, Poland suggests. What the full implementation hinges upon consists of two issues particularly close to Poland of all the EU member states. Poland is calling for the EU to make final decisions on decisions on the socalled transition period requests, or the option of allocating a limited number of free allowances to power generators for a transitional period. The Polish power generation industry is currently looking to carry out substantial investments, including several thousand MW of coal-fired capacity. These investments’ business plans, as well as their standing with the banks, would look much better if free allowances could be factored in. Poland also pushes for full implementation of the ETS Directive regulation allowing emission reductions in sectors not covered in the ETS to translate into carbon credits that could be used for compliance purposes under the ETS. Also, full auctioning in the power sector disadvantages fuels with high carbon footprint forcing them out of the market altogether instead of incentivizing technological development.
POLICY
The ETS could transform from a curiosity limited to only one of the world’s regions into a sexy tool that other countries will want to join “If the CCS demonstration program is further delayed, fossil fuels like hard coal and lignite will be the first victims of full auctioning,” Poland said. The climate policy objectives should be reconciled with the rights of the EU member states to shape the energy mix as desired and determined by factors like countries’ available mineral resources. Warsaw is worried, however, that its rich coal reserves could become a major liability if some programs to contain coal somehow in the future energy mix of the EU are going to fail. “The CCS program is an example of an undertaking that’s trumpeted as key to climate change policy yet is lacking progress whatsoever,” Warsaw charged.
IMPROVE OWN POSITION Poland is also against product-based emissions benchmarks, arguing they’re not “competition neutral”. Benchmarks should be determined separately for each type of fuel: hard coal, brown coal, natural gas, and fuel oil. To further drive R&D for every technology, starting from 2013, the base benchmark could be reduced by 1 percentage point each year, it is suggested. In short, the EU ETS must be made a landmark product appealing to countries that the EU is trying to negotiate global climate agreement with. Still, Poland warns against introducing changes weakening its negotiation position, like “unilateral ramping up of emission reduction targets.” An important element is missing from the Polish document. While climate action is the reason why the ETS was introduced, it has become a tool to push the EU toward sustainable economy and strengthened energy security, goals that could hardly be questioned. It seems, however, that Poland is still to put 2 and 2 together. n
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TOP 10 ENERGY LAWYERS LAWYER
RANK
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
LAW FIRM
Weil, Gotshal & Manges Wierzbowski Eversheds Drzewiecki, Tomaszek & Wspólnicy Gide Loyrette Nouel Chmaj i Wspólnicy K&L Gates Chałas & Partners
SIZE
CLIENT LIST INCLUDES Arek Krasnodebski
Salans
CONTACT
Rondo ONZ 1, 00-124 Warsaw
140
Areva, Dalkia, Energa, Europol Gaz, Evonik, GDF Suez, Gamesa, Gazprom, GWEP, Halliburton, LNG Energy, LitPol Link, PGE, PSE Operator, RWE Stoen, Vattenfall Paweł Rymarz
tel. +48 22 520 4000, pawel.rymarz@weil.com
67
CEZ, Enea, Energa, EuRoPol GAZ, GE Hitachi, J&S Energy, Mercuria Energy Group, OPPPW, Petrolinvest, PGE, PGNiG, Polenergia, Prokom Investments, Tauron Polska Krzysztof Wierzbowski
t: 22 50 50 763, maciej.jozwiak@eversheds.pl
68
Westinghouse/Shaw, ENERGA S.A., PKN Orlen S.A., Rafako, Eolica, Weatherford, Carbon Trust, Blue Green Energy, Fortum, Biofuel Wales, RWE npower, Veolia tomaszek@dt.com.pl A. Tomaszek drzewiecki@dt.com.pl Z. Drzewiecki KGHM Polska Miedz S.A, PKN Orlen SA, Vattenfall Heat Poland SA, PIECOBGIOAZ S.A., NWT a.s., RES Renergys Development SA, PGE S.A.
Robert Jedrzejczyk
robert.jedrzejczyk@gide.com tel: +48 22 344 00 00
70
50
Dalkia, Veolia, PGNiG, KGHM Polska Miedz, EDF, Suez SITA, Bionersis, Green Bear, Air Liquide, PGE, Polskie LNG Sebastian Fabisiak
47
fabisiak@chmaj.pl
ENEA S.A., PKE S.A., Elektrownia Kozienice S.A., Elektrownie Wodne Sp. z o.o., Energa Kogeneracja Sp. z o.o., Katowicki Holding Weglowy S.A., Kampania Weglowa S.A. Tomasz Dobrowolski
tomasz.dobrowolski@klgates.com tel. +48 22 653 42 21
45
[Confidential] [Not specified]
chwp@chwp.pl
[Not specified]
ENEA, Energa SA, PSE Operator, KGHM Polska Miedz S.A, PGNiG, Zakład Utylizacji, Elektrownia Kozienice S.A., Shell, Katowicki Holding Weglowy S.A., Dewon SA
Chadbourne & Parke
Igor Muszynski
White & Case
Tomasz Chmal
klasocki@chadbourne.com, imuszynski@chadbourne.com,
33
[Confidential] warsaw@whitecase.com tel. +48 22 50 50 100
80
[Confidential] * This list is based on self-reporting in a survey conducted in September 2011 by Cleantech Poland
TOP 10 Cleantech Law Firms RANKING Law Firm ________________________________ Energy/Environmental Partner ______________________________
1
OPTIONAL
3
ec tri Em city iss Ma r En ions kets vir Tr on adi LN me ng G ntal Nu La w cle Sh ar ale Ga s
El
ec tr Em icity iss Ma En ions rket vir Tr s o a LN nme ding G ntal La Nu w cle a Sh r ale Ga s
W as t
W as t W e-en in erg d y
El
W e-en in erg d y
g B io
g B io
Please check off any segments in which the firm PLANS TO DO work in the next five years.
B a io s m Cl as ea s n Gr co ee al n Ge bu ot ildi h n Hy erm g dr al So opow lar er
2
Please check off any segments in which the firm HAS DONE work in the last five years.
B a io s m Cl as ea s n Gr co ee al n Ge bu ot ildi h n Hy erm g dr al So opow lar er
Contact details (to be published) _______________________________________________________________________
Clients include __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ 2010 Revenue ________________________(EUR) Number of lawyers _________________________
The results of this survey will be published in the inaugural edition of the Cleantech Quarterly due out on November 26, 2011. Please email completed survey to: Parker@CleantechPoland.com Contact: Parker Snyder, Executive Director (+48) 517 469 881
INVITED
PARTICIPANTS Baker & McKenzie BSJP | Taylor Wessing Chadbourne & Parke Chalas i Wspolnicy Chmaj i Wspolnicy Clifford Chance CMS Cameron McKenna DLA Piper Wiater DMS DeBenedetti Majewski Szcześniak Drzewiecki Tomaszek i Wspolnicy DZP Domanski Zakrzewski Palinka Gide Loyrette Nouel Grynhoff Wozny Wspolnicy Hogan Lovells K&L Gates Koksztys Kancelaria Mamiński & Wspólnicy Miller Canfield Norton Rose Salans SK&S Wardyński i Wspólnicy Weil, Gotshal and Manges White & Case Wierzbowski Eversheds
Thank you for completing this survey compiled by Cleantech Poland Sp z o.o. with registered address at ul. Pustelnicka 48/22, 04-138 Warsaw | NIP 1132817017, KRS 0000364423
A survey was sent out to 25 firms
1 point was awarded for each past segment
Future segments decided ties
Overall ties went to larger firm Investors can find a Legal Portal at www.cleantechpoland.com/legal or scan this QR Code in your smart phone TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS SURVEY, CONTACT THE PUBLISHER
WWW.CLEANTECHPOLAND.COM | 51
LEGAL
HOW WAS THIS RANKING CALCULATED?
JOBS
ENVIRONMENT AND THE LABOR MARKET
Marta Zajączkowska: on a bike all year round
M A R T A Z A J Ą C Z K O W S K A , 25, CAMPAIGN COORDINATOR AT ZIELONE MAZOWSZE*
Improving Warsaw life A global climate agreement isn’t there yet, but it’s no reason to give up grassroots work COPENHAGEN DIDN’T HAVE as much impact on the outcome of climate change conference in 2010, as it did on Marta Zajączkowska. Not fully into environmentalism yet, a stay in the Danish capital two years ago was an eye opener. Now she’s working to bring at least some of Danish experiences into Warsaw. “In Copenhagen, I saw a city for the people. Now I work in downtown Warsaw, which looks and feels as if it were still 1970s. The air quality is terrible, and a wheelchaired friend of mine needs to get on two buses to travel a few hundred meters from her home to the train station,” Ms. Zajączkowska told Cleantech. “I’m working to move the quality of life in
Warsaw towards Copenhagen just a little bit,” she said. Born in 1987, Ms. Zajączkowska was not always an environmentalist. Before her stint in Copenhagen, she studied environmental protection studies at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. “My original ambition was to be a physiotherapist. Environmental protection was fairly interesting but I didn’t really get into it before I had the personal experience of living in an environmentally friendly city,” she said. “After Copenhagen I applied to work as a volunteer for Zielone Mazowsze, an environmental NGO but they were just starting a campaign for a friendlier and cleaner center of
A graduate of the environmental studies at the Warsaw University of Life SciCV ences, the Zielone Mazowsze position is Marta Zajaczkowska’s first job. In some time, she hopes to work in corporate social responsibility issues.
52 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
Warsaw and offered me a job to become the project’s coordinator,” Ms. Zajączkowska said. The organization runs a small office and a hostel in downtown Warsaw. Unlike her friends in business, however, working for an NGO project that requires massive changes in the law plus overcoming outdated attitudes towards urban planning and environmentalism, Ms. Zajączkowska is in for a day-to-day struggle, inching forward ideas that are standard in many Danish or German cities, but pretty revolutionary in Warsaw. “Our main goal is to have lowemissions zone established in the center of Warsaw but I realize it’s a task that will take years. Before it happens, I need to do grassroots work convincing officials that they could make it happen at all,” Ms. Zajączkowska said. n *environmental NGO
BY WOJCIECH KOSC
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SZYMON SZCZESNIAK JOBS
Weronika Otulak and Maksym Maksymowicz, Greenfield Wind
M A K S Y M M A K S Y M O W I C Z , 25, PROJECT MANAGER AT GREENFIELD WIND W E R O N I K A O T U L A K , 25, PROJECT MANAGER AT GREENFIELD WIND
Educated and passionate Environmental studies may get you a job. A passion will get you a better one “MY TASK LIST for the day? Let’s see,” Maksym Maksymowicz pulls out an iPhone. “I’m going to send maps to an ornitologist for one of the project screening tasks, get in touch with three companies, one of which could do a grid network access report for us, and verify turbines’ layout on one of our projects because there’s a sparrowhawk nest that we shouldn’t disturb,” he said. Maksym Maksymowicz and Weronika Otulak both graduated from environmental protection studies at the Warsaw University and the Life Science University in Warsaw, respectively. They’re now project ma nagers at a wind development com-
pany Greenfield Wind. At the company, Ms. Otulak is responsible for internal project screening. “It’s a desktop study of a project: analyzing all available data and documents before outside analyses are ordered,” she said. A project is then turned over to Mr. Maksymowicz. “When we’re sure of a project after we have scrutinized it internally, I need to order outside screening, like wind speed measuring. This is because we don’t want our clients to think we could have ‘doctored’ the data becase we’re ultimately the sellers of a project. Outside screening of projects leaves no doubt of the project’s quality,” Mr. Maksymowicz said. The two project managers are ex-
amples that defy the current debate on higher education in Poland, which has allegedly transformed into an assembly line for production of MA graduates that can’t find jobs or find poor ones, below their competences. Mr. Maksymowicz and Ms. Otulak found theirs immediately after graduation. “I’ve always wanted to go into environment, but majoring in environmental studies won’t do it for you if you’re after a good job. You need to be active and establish good contacts early,” Ms. Otulak said. “Also, don’t go with the crowd. Do some unpopular courses. I did a GIS course and a well done GIS analysis got me the job,” Mr. Maksymowicz said. n
Before joining Greenfield Wind, Maksym MaksyA leading student at the Warsaw University of Life CV mowicz CV Sciences, worked at an NGO Client Earth and investment Weronika Otulak was picked by business right company Environment Investment Partners.
away after graduation.
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JOBS
ENVIRONMENT AND THE LABOR MARKET
Paweł Kosiński at his company’s office in the center of Warsaw
P A W E Ł K O S I Ń S K I , 25, ANALYST AT BIO ALLIANCE, A BIOGAS DEVELOPMENT COMPANY
Farmhand, firsthand When things go wrong in the field, Paweł Kosinski puts on his farmer’s hat for help IF YOU LIKE DAIRY PRODUCTS, you have surely seen Piątnica cottage cheese in your local grocery store. The parents of Paweł Kosiński, an analyst at biogas developer Bio Alliance, belong to a cooperative of producers that supply milk for the product. Growing up in an agricultural setting is helping Mr. Kosiński work on-site with farmers who are sometimes skeptical of biogas installations springing up in their neighborhoods. “It’s often that farmers don’t expect a Warsaw guy to know what it’s like to run a farm. Conversations are easier if they hear from me, say, the details of how plants’ germinate,” Mr. Kosiński told Cleantech in Bio Alliance’s headquarters on the 19th floor
of an office tower in the center of Warsaw. The 25-year old began his career in the environmental business with an internship at the Institute of Renewable Energy (IEO), while a student of environmental protection at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. “Everyone was warning me against taking these studies. Environmental protection didn’t seem like anything to boost your career,” Mr. Kosiński said. As it happened, he was the one who was right about his choices. Following the internship at the IEO, he started developing an interest in biogas. “There was hardly any market for it and still today it’s developing slowly, but that’s what makes it so
Paweł Kosinski, a graduate of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, made CV hisinternship first move toward environmental business while still a student. He did an at the Renewable Energy Institute before moving on to Bio Alliance.
54 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
promising,” Mr. Kosiński said. At Bio Alliance, Mr. Kosiński is responsible for gathering and analyzing data. “There are two kinds of tasks about data. One is monitoring and analyzing anything that has an influence on the market, so regulatory framework, agricultural market, the moves of the competition. The other task is looking at information that’s important for particular projects that we’re doing,” he said. Other than that, Mr. Kosiński helps carry out environmental assessment studies, key documents for many investment projects. “The types of information that I work with is so varied, plus there are field trips to potential sites for our biogas developments and working with the locals to win them for those projects,” Mr. Kosiński said. “This job isn’t routine at all,” he added. n
EVENTS
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Global Offshore Wind 2012
13-14 June 2012, ExCeL London, UK
“The UK and emerging markets will showcase their strengths and opportunities at Global Offshore Wind 2012. You will learn from focused policy and technical content specially crafted to apply key findings directly to new regions, and plug into world leading industry expertise, products, services and investment opportunities. It’s time to leverage the UK offshore wind experience.” UK experts will share their knowledge. http://www. renewable-uk.com/events/globaloffshore-wind-2012/sponsorship.
Renewable Energy World Europe 2012
12-14 June 2012, Koelnmesse, Cologne, Germany “Delegates to Renewable Energy World Europe, our unique cross-technology event and multi-track conference, will benefit from multiple presentations and panel discussion sessions with all the latest on renewable energy and associated technologies, strategies and implementation. Along with a unique opportunity to develop the role of renewable energies within the context of the wider energy complex, Renewable Energy World Europe offers you the chance to not only discuss commercial and financial prospects, but to also do vital business. It is the must attend energy event this summer.” Where else to talk about renewables if not in Germany? Participate in policy discussions and listen in on sector-specific presentations. Experience a trip to Windtest Grevenbroich test field and meet some of the industry’s finest.
http://www.renewableenergyworld-europe.com/index.html
Offshore Wind Risk Summit 2012 Paliwa Alternatywne. Waste to Energy. Energia z Odpadów
14 June 2012,
Hotel InterContinental, Warsaw, Poland If your business is waste-to-energy, you might be interested in this event in Poland. To learn more about business opportunities in this sector and meet people from the industry, you should consider „Paliwa Alternatywne. Waste to Energy. Energia z Odpadów”.
http://scc.com.pl/konferencje/en/ipal/
19-20 June 2012, Hotel Atlantic Kempinski, Hamburg, Germany
“This is only place to hear from the key utilities and Independent Power Producers (IPP), experts in regulatory & permitting risk and leading service providers driving offshore wind development forward. You’ll also meet, network and have face-to-face time with over 100 senior offshore wind decision makers.”* http://www.windenergyupdate.com/ risk/conference-event-brochure.php
*texts in quotation marks from event organizers
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Andrzej Błachowicz, at center, an expert at KOBIZE
March, 21st, 2012
Spring
From left, Parker Snyder, publisher, and Wojciech Kość, editor of Cleantech magazine
CLEANTECH MIXER
Each quarter, we get the cleantech community together for hors d’oeuvres, wine and networking. Our March mixer was at the Pure Sky Club in downtown Warsaw. The summer mixer is May 30th and the fall mixer will be held in early September. Enjoy the photos! At center, Preston Smith, CEE Consulting, an expert in risk management
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SZYMON SZCZESNIAK
At center, Łukasz Andrzejewski, proposal manager, renewable energy, Siemens
56 56| |CLEANTECH CLEANTECH|Q3 |Q32012 2012
EVENTS
Andrew de Roy, at left, Steve Sperelakis, at right, in conversation with Izabela Kawczynski
A spirited discussion about the new renewable energy law commences
Two guest greet in the designer bar at Pure Sky Club
Taking note of the current coefficients for wind and solar
Christian Schnell, of DMS, in conversation at center with colleagues
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Cleantech in Poland: young, dynamic, growing, and full of dreams for the future
Discussing the future of the Polish renewable energy law
Getting new business is only a matter of a good approach
58 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
Peter Turo, of Młode Orły, in discussion with Wojciech Kość, editor of Cleantech
Steve Sperelakis, cast a smile to melt the chocolate
EVENTS
Izabela Kawczynski, and Peter Turo listen in on the conversation
New business contacts can be made at the mixer
In the foreground, Andrew de Roy, listens to the presenter
David DeBenedetti, of DMS law firm, getting ready to make a few remarks
Parker Snyder, publisher, explaining the importance of a cleantech community
Plenty of time for a few drinks before going home
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PORTRAIT
BY PARKER SNYDER PHOTOGRAPHY BY SZYMON SZCZESNIAK
Agata Hinc Who am I? I was just promoted to managing director at demosEUROPACenter for European Strategy, which means energy issues will take on even more importance, because formerly I was managing the center’s lowcarbon economy initiatives. I have an extremely challenging job to do, but it makes my day more interesting. If it was easy, I don’t think I’d have as much fun.
Poland and the EU Poland isn’t the bad character they are portrayed to be in climate negotiations. It’s good to have someone with a different point of view. But you’re right, vetoing everything is not a good way of doing something. I remember back in college, my favorite class was with Prof. Krzysztof Wielecki, who made me understand how clever a society can be, if only they are educated to think for themselves.
Agata Hinc is our pick for portrait: a young, talented woman who is improving Poland-EU relations.
What about the ministry of environment? The ministry of environment used to be a “junior” ministry. With Marcin Korolec appointed as minister, and others coming with him from the ministry of economy, it’s taking on a more prominent role. The shift means that energy issues are some of the government’s most important issues. Regarding Durban, I think that there wouldn’t have been an agreement if not for minister Korolec.
Do you like your job? I love it. Energy is simply an important issue to my country and to the European Union. I’m proud of what I do. The lifestyle is great too because I work not far from where I live, in Powiśle, near my favorite place to hang out - the railway station-turned-cafe, PKP Powiśle.
Is Poland the good guy now? Formerly, we said no to everything. But Poland has been constructive recently, proposing inward investment to stop carbon leakage during EU ETS phase three, saying there should be a mechanism to offset part of the ETS obligation with AAUs held by EU member states to mitigate the burden for countries with heavy industry. A cynic might say we’re asking for money, but from my point of view, we’re a country with their own priorities and opinions.
60 | CLEANTECH |Q3 2012
Who inspires you? My boss, Paweł Świeboda, president of demosEUROPA, formerly with the foreign ministry and the chancellery of the president. He was the first person to inspire me to energy and climate policy. We talked a lot about issues pivotal for the development of the EU, and energy was one of them.
6 | CLEANTECH | Q1 2012
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Q3 2012
Business
Renewables on the edge
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busines s mixer m a y, 30th, 2012
7:00 p.m. (19:00) Pure Sk y Club, 22nd floor Ul. Złota 59, Warsaw Enter to the right of Hard Rock Cafe.
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Q3 2012
Business
Renewables on the edge
Scrap cars
Climate action
Do it yourself
Not in Poland
Grzegorz Milczarek, inventor of biomass cathode
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USA $18 - $18CAD - POLAND 50 PLN + VAT - EU €12 - UK £11
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Grzegorz Milczarek, inventor of biomass cathode
Invent the
future
USA $18 - $18CAD - POLAND 50 PLN + VAT - EU €12 - UK £11
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