{"id":125256,"date":"2024-02-12T07:56:18","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T05:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/poland-spa-town-turns-to-renewable-energy-for-cleaner-air\/"},"modified":"2024-02-12T07:56:18","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T05:56:18","slug":"poland-spa-town-turns-to-renewable-energy-for-cleaner-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/news\/poland-spa-town-turns-to-renewable-energy-for-cleaner-air\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland: Spa town turns to renewable energy for cleaner air"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\" data-trp-original-action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125256\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"trp-form-language\" value=\"en\"\/><\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\nAfter choking on polluted air for many years, the Polish spa town of Ladek-Zdroj turned to renewables to clean up its act and improve its air quality. It managed to slash electricity costs in the process. When Roman Kaczmarczyk became mayor of Ladek-Zdroj in 2014, he envisioned a field outside the town full of solar panels instead of wheat. People thought he was crazy.\u00a0 At a time when renewable energy was still uncharted territory for most of the country, Kaczmarczyk pledged to turn the small spa town near the Czech border into Poland&#8217;s first energy self-sufficient community. This, he argued, would kill two birds with one stone: It would cut the town&#8217;s dreadful air pollution as well as its high energy costs.<\/p>\n<p>Kaczmarczyk, a computer engineer and economist by profession, has lived among Ladek-Zdroj&#8217;s 5,500 residents almost all of his life. Day-in, day-out in the cold season, he and his fellow townspeople had to inhale harsh, sulfurous air. As in many Polish towns, most heating systems in Ladek-Zdroj still burn oil, coal, wood and even garbage. Every year, the once brightly painted houses sported a fresh gray layer of soot, becoming darker and darker.<\/p>\n<p>The smog was anathema to the town&#8217;s image as a health resort \u2014 its most lucrative economic sector. Tourists complained bitterly about the foul air. Today, Ladek-Zdroj boasts its own photovoltaic solar farm with 20 rows of solar panels spread out over an 11-hectare (27-acre) field. Kaczmarczyk says that the project has been a huge success across the board: The town now has cleaner air, cheaper electricity and is well on its way to becoming independent of the national power supply.<\/p>\n<p>The energy cooperative in Ladek-Zdroj \u2014 one of 22 energy communities in Poland \u2014 began operating in September 2023. The three founding members were the town&#8217;s largest municipal enterprises. Cooperative members receive zero-carbon clean energy directly from the solar farm at a third of the utility&#8217;s rate and only pay for grid use.\u00a0\u00a0In 2024, the collective will accept new members from the town and nine nearby villages. Companies and private households can acquire shares for \u20ac227 ($243) apiece, plus a single payment of the same amount to join the cooperative.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s more, all municipal buildings in Ladek-Zdroj are now 100% powered by local green energy. Despite the obvious benefits of the initiative, the mayor still has difficulty explaining the model to some of Ladek-Zdroj&#8217;s citizens, who would prefer better roads and other infrastructure to solar panels. &#8220;There&#8217;s a lack of conviction that the cooperative works,&#8221; he says. When Kaczmarczyk started planning the project, he realized that the Polish government was unprepared for something so unique. Cooperatives were the responsibility of the agriculture ministry and could therefore only be set up in rural areas.<\/p>\n<p>Ladek-Zdroj&#8217;s mayor was rather lucky, says Krzysztof Smolnicki of Fundacja Ekorozwoju, an environmental foundation in Wroclaw. &#8220;There&#8217;s no legislation for self-organized energy collectives and renewable energy prosumers in Poland,&#8221; he told DW. Although solar panels are booming in Poland, it&#8217;s still impossible to form renewable energy clusters and cooperatives in cities. &#8220;Large cooperatives should be encouraged in city suburbs, public buildings like schools, hospitals, and municipal buildings, instead of rural areas,&#8221; said Smolnicki.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/sustainable-energy-community-in-poland-generates-green-energy-for-a-popular-spa-town\/a-68208735\">Read more &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/sustainable-energy-community-in-poland-generates-green-energy-for-a-popular-spa-town\/a-68208735\">DW<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/environmental-news-en\/poland-spa-town-turns-to-renewable-energy-for-cleaner-air\/\">Poland: Spa town turns to renewable energy for cleaner air<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[451,482,575,13352,407,1720],"class_list":["post-125256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-air","tag-energy","tag-environmental-news-en","tag-poland-spatown","tag-quality","tag-renewable"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}