Inspiring Polish energy actors
On 22 May a group of highly ranked visitors from the Polish Energy sector visited the Department of Energy Technology at KTH. District heating and gas turbines without fossil fuels was on the agenda and KTH’s Björn Palm, Jens Fridh and Björn Laumert shared their expertise.
The visit was part of a two-day program where leading Swedish energy actors, such as Swedish Energy Agency, Swedish Ministry of Energy, Stockholm Exergi, Göteborg Energi and KTH met their Polish colleagues from the Polish Ministry of Climate and Environment, Uniper, PGE Energia Ciepła S.A., ORLEN Termika S.A. and Warsaw Municipality.
“I talked about the prospects for district heating in Poland in the future, without the use of fossil fuels (which is by far the most common in the world)”, Professor Björn Palm says. “I also discussed that it is unlikely for Poland to replicate the Swedish solutions, where a lot of biofuel is used, because Poland's forest area is much smaller than Sweden’s and the urban population much larger”.
“Poland’s solution will probably have to be large heat pumps, where there are suitable heat sources such as rivers and lakes, or somewhat smaller heat pumps using waste heat from computer centers, industries or sewage treatment plants.”
Jens Fridh talked about combined heat and power, and gas turbines, and how they can be fueled with different fuels. The day continued with a panel discussions with sharing insights and knowledge exchange.
This collaboration started in December 2024, when Björn Palm together with the representatives from Stockholm Exergi and Siemens Energy (Sweden) visited Poland for sharing Swedish experience of district heating systems.