Coronavirus has not mastered the energy sector yet?
I conclude this from rational queries I receive, from telephones from companies wishing to continue investing in renewable sources, and from conversations (by phone, of course) with colleagues in the industry.
But what will happen next? Will the coming economic crisis, probably already on a global scale, change the attitude to modern energy? Will smog no longer bother?
Will coal be back in favor in Europe? If the pandemic will last for a short time then nothing special will change in this topic.
But if it lasts a few months, the economic losses will be huge, and there will certainly be a natural urge to make up for them. At all costs? At the expense of modern energy and your own health?
And it is modern distributed energy that works great in times of all misery. Large industrial plants are at greater risk in crisis circumstances, not to mention the state of war.
But also a pandemic can be a great threat to large-scale energy, after all, several thousand people work in one place.
Countries with a dispersed industry structure have always fared better in the face of disasters or other calamities.
I have no doubt that Europeans will quickly return to continuing the path they have chosen, and what will be with us? The government has made several key and wise decisions related to the epidemic, and society has shown exceptional prudence and discipline so far.
As always, in times of danger we show a large degree of responsibility and self-discipline.
But bad times go by and you have to get to work organic. And most importantly, draw the right conclusions and put them into practice.
And this is a bit worse with us. From the defeat that has occurred, proper conclusions can be drawn for the development of the Polish energy sector. Certainly.
It is definitely the development of all distributed sources, and not only renewable ones, it is the diversification of production sources, transmission lines, ownership of both sources and lines, the settlement system and so on. But strategic objects must remain under state control, and the system of cooperation with non-state sources clear and legible, especially in crisis situations.
Maybe it is worth taking advantage of this time of calm and slowing down of the economic pace to work on it in a quiet place, whether at home or in the office, and if everything begins to return to normal, working patterns have already been worked out.
Despite the objective difficulties, as the Renewable Energy Association we will be commenting on the events taking place in the energy sector on an ongoing basis
Włodzimierz Ehrenhalt
Vice President of the Board