Finnish experts, staff and stakeholders of the project participated in the meeting held on Thursday, 7th April this year. The guests were welcomed by Katarzyna Kowalewska, acting Deputy Director of the Department of Investment and Development in the Office of the Marshal of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. Next, Grzegorz Banaś, Chairman of the Development Strategy, Promotion and International Cooperation Committee of the Assembly of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (regional parliament) took the floor. He emphasised that the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship must meet the challenges posed by climate change, air pollution and the related smog issue. He stressed that reduction of fossil fuels is an important element of the RESINDUSTRY project, the transition from traditional technologies to ecotechnologies, as well as achieving long-term stability of energy prices in industry, in which RES play an important role. Therefore, regional policy should support measures to weaken negative phenomena, consisting in the pro-ecological transformation of the regional economy, including agriculture. Promotion of sustainable energy consumption and making popular communal systems favourable to the climate, especially when heating houses and flats is a must.
Invited to the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship by the Department of Investment and Development, Sandor Luukkanen, an expert from Lahti Energia (a regional energy company) from Finland, discussed the technical and financial details of RES installations in two Finnish companies, namely heat plant fired with biomass-fired heating facility from factory’s own oat hull side streams at Fazer and a biomass boiler providing heat and steam for malt production at Viking Malt. Lahti Energia Oy in cooperation with Fazer, built an 8 MW biomass-fired heating plant, located directly on its factory premises in Lahti. The installation replaced the existing natural gas heating which was becoming more and more expensive due to increased taxes on fossil fuels. The project was completed in autumn 2020. The purpose of the 12 MW power plant at Viking Malt, also built by Lahti Energia, is to provide heating and steam for the malt production process, as well as for heating the factory buildings and network water. The next point on the agenda was a study visit to the wind farm in the town of Szerzawy in the Pawłów municipality, where a representative of Elawan Energy – Michał Górski discussed the details of the installation consisting of five wind turbines with a total capacity of 10 MW. Then, the participants of the expert mission visited the Research and Development Centre in Kielce, where tests are carried out for maximum efficiency in various operating conditions of PV modules, heat pumps, and solar collectors.
