Developing a model program in Pyrzyce to use geothermal resources as a tool to support the local community in the fight against low emissions is the goal of an agreement concluded between the NFEPWM, Geotermia Pyrzyce, the municipality of Pyrzyce, WFOSiGW in Szczecin and the Prime Minister’s Plenipotentiary for the Clean Air program. The document, inaugurating the project “Pyrzyce Laboratory”, was signed on November 14 on Clean Air Day, as reported locally.
Conclusions and recommendations from the project implemented in Pyrzyce – also containing proposals for changes in legal provisions supporting the use of geothermal resources for the needs of supporting local heating systems – will be sent to central and local government administration.
Pyrzyce is a municipality south of Szcecin in the West of Poland near the German border.
– In February last year in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, we inaugurated the “StopSmog” program, under which we launched the “Skawina Laboratory” action aimed at developing the best tools for cooperation between the government and local government supporting house insulation and replacement of old boilers by energy poor people.
Today we are launching the “Pyrzyce Laboratory”, which aims to explore how to use renewable natural wealth, which is geothermal energy and the local heating plant using this resource, to effectively combat low emissions – announces the cooperation of five signatories to the agreement, the President of the NFEPWM and the Prime Minister’s Plenipotentiary “Clean Air” program, Piotr Wo?ny.
Specific, point-based solutions used in towns struggling with smog bring real results, the best example of which is Krakow, which began to win in the fight against smog. From September this year in the capital of Lesser Poland there is a total ban on burning coal and wood. Thanks to this, despite the first frosts, the air quality sensors have kept the green color – he emphasizes.
From year to year this improvement will be even more noticeable with the gradual liquidation of the so-called Cinderella in the communes of the Krakow obwarzanek. How geothermal can be helpful in the fight against smog can be proved by the fact that thanks to the activity of another portfolio company of the Fund – Geotermia Podhalanska, which provides about 40% of the heat used in Zakopane.
Zakopane, which was still on the list of 50 cities in 2016 with the most polluted air in Europe, it was not included in the next list published by the World Health Organization in 2018 – says the President of the Fund.
The agreement signed 13 November 2019 in Pyrzyce envisages the establishment of a working team by the signatories, whose task will be to within a month develop a road map of activities aimed at significantly reducing and ultimately eliminating low emissions in the commune of Pyrzyce. The resources and potential of Geotermia Pyrzyce, whose shareholders are NFOSiGW, WFOSiGW in Szczecin and the commune of Pyrzyce, will be a key tool for achieving this goal.
Pyrzycka company is a company with over 20 years of experience in the exploitation of geothermal waters in the West Pomeranian region. It uses innovative methods on a global scale, e.g. super soft acid treatment, which prevents clogging and has gained international recognition and a special European Commission award in 2015. Heat production in Pyrzyce Geothermia is based on the use of hot water, drawn from a depth of 1,640 meters, with a temperature of 64 degrees Celsius.
WFO?iGW in Szczecin in cooperation with the National Fund offers residents of our region rich financing possibilities for the installation of renewable energy sources – including as part of the “Clean Air” and “My Current” programs. We focus not only on solar and wind energy, but also geothermal, supporting the activities of Geotermia Pyrzyce, including drilling the GT1-bis borehole, thanks to which heat can be obtained more effectively from the depths of the earth – says Pawel Mirowski, President of the Board of the Provincial Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management in Szczecin. – The fund also supports educational activities regarding the development of renewable energy. Among them is the modern renewable energy laboratory, which since spring 2018 has been operating at the West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin and allows students to learn, based on modern technologies, how to care, among others for the quality of air we breathe.
In addition to the obligation to jointly develop a road map for the elimination of low emissions in Pyrzyce thanks to geothermal resources, the parties to the agreement agreed NFOSiGW’s advisory support for the commune in the form of training for communal energy engineers and joint educational activities. The experience of the “Pyrzyce Laboratory” will be extremely helpful in improving the programs to combat low emissions and all support systems for local government units in the energy transformation of their local heating systems.
