While Germany is busy phasing-out its nuclear power plants in order to meet obligations made back in 2000 and Lithuania reluctantly shuts down its Ignalina nuclear plant due to its pre-accession pledge to the EU, Poland has been moving in quite a different direction. The country's nuclear programme has been increasingly taking shape up as expectations for diminishing dependence on energy imports are high in Poland. In 2010, the government plans to convince the Poles that nuclear energy is a safe and environment-friendly source of energy. And, if everything works out, accessible 10 years from now.
The government rough aim is to launch the first nuclear plant in 2020, as starting from that year additional carbon dioxide (CO2) emission rights that the EU has accorded to the Polish energy sector will have expired. By this time, should Poland's industry remain as dependent on coal-generated energy as it is at present, energy prices would skyrocket and consequences for the economy could be grave.
On December 28, the largest state-controlled energy holding, Polish Group of Energy (PGE), registered a subsidiary company PGE Nuclear Energy, which has been set up to handle the government contract for the construction of two nuclear energy plants, with the first one projected to be launched in 2020 and the second one possibly in 2025. The estimated costs of building the two nuclear plants with a power output of 3,000 megawatts each is €18bn.
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