Regional Energy Reports highlights_Mazovia
Mazovia (Poland)
Mazovia – the largest Voivodeship in Poland – faces challenges in increasing the use of RES: PROSPECT 2030 will help the region to decarbonize local energy and achieve 2030 EU targets.
The goals of Mazovia's energy policy are in line with Poland's goals: the priorities are ensuring the energy security of the country, increasing the competitiveness of the economy and its energy efficiency, as well as protecting the environment. PROSPECT2030 with its goal and approach will give support for the development and implementation of the Regional Action Plan in the Mazovia voivodeship.
The Mazovian Voivodeship is the largest in the country and covers an area of 35.558 km2, which accounts for 11.38% of Poland's territory. The voivodship consists of 314 municipalities and has about 5.4 million people, which places them first in the country in terms of population.
Mazovia is one of the most economically developed regions in Poland. The region is the fastest developing region in reference to developed regions in European Union as a result of the highest participation in GDP generation of the country and high pace of growth of the economy.
Residents of Mazovian Voivodeship have very good life perspectives if compared to the status of persons from other regions in Poland. It is confirmed by figures indicating the lowest unemployment rate and relatively high level of income. The area is characteristic of high diversity of business activity, considerable financial outlays for development of science, high education level of population, high activity of residents and varied professional qualifications. Those factors affect the advantage of the Mazovian Voivodeship over other voivodeships in the country.
In the region, however, there is a big problem with access to regional energy data. The energy related data are available only on national level and in general view on regional level. The final energy consumption from official statistics in the Mazovia Region for 2016 is app. 22.612 GWh. The share of the regional consumption is around 7% of the total national final consumption. The amount of CO2 emissions, based on energy consumption, was estimated to an amount of app. 268.5 Million tons per year.
Mazovian Voivodeship is one of the largest electricity consumers in Poland, produced mostly from coal, there is only 11% share of renewable sources. Now many cities in Mazovia face the huge problem of air pollution and smog. Big challenges for the region are mostly reduction of contamination and investments in sustainable energy.
The area of the Mazovian voivodeship lies in the area of favorable conditions for the development of wind energy. Unfortunately, the enacted law on the location of wind farms slowed down and even stopped the development of this industry. As for hydro power still Wisła (the largest river in Mazovian voivodeship and in Poland) energy potential is not fully utilized. Solar energy installations are increasingly used. Unfortunately, meteorological conditions in Poland are characterized by very uneven distribution of solar radiation in the annual cycle and that causes lower annual energy production. There are many possibilities for direct utilization of biomass, the utilization of biogas (from various resources) and the thermal gasification of organic waste, including the processing of the product gas (greening the gas). There is also still a big potential in the intensification of photovoltaic and electric storage in combination with heat-pumps, as well as in the electrification of the mobility sector.
In order to become part of low carbon community project PROSPECT 2030 will help Mazovia region to decarbonize local energy and achieve 2030 EU targets.
