Nothing is sticking together! Financially, geographically and energetically – is this the year?
Money for nuclear power – do we already know how much a power plant costs?
As planned, one of the first decisions of the NPRM was to approve subsidizing the nuclear power plant construction project with about PLN 60 billion (bond transfer). At the same time, a construction financing model was presented, in which 30% is to be own funds and 70% is to be credit. This allows us to make the first calculations of how much the reactor will cost – calculations once at the level of middle school now high school, or even some high school graduation assignment. If 60 billion is 30% then the whole construction will cost 200 billion PLN (approximately $50 billion). In that case, if we build 3 reactors (each net power of about 1150 MW) then the cost per reactor will be $16.7 billion (per kW of installed capacity about $14500/kW), if only two would come out then already $25 billion ($21700/kW), if only one then the whole 50 billion (and already $43.5 thousand/kW), not to mention that if nothing is built then the cost per kW will be infinity. Be that as it may – it doesn’t stick together at all. But you have to read it differently. Funds for construction can be transferred only after notification from the European Union – and the latter is known to cut something. So maybe we are requesting 60 and actually want 3 times less – so as if the construction were to cost (in total) only this $17 billion completely (out of 3) then somehow more rational values already come out.
The US takes Greenland, and Poland …. Madagascar?
Dynamic announcements by the US President-elect (D. Trump) have ignited world politics and encouraged everyone to look for certain points on the map. Thanks to this – everyone in the US already knows where Greenland is. In the new reality of geographic divisions, Poland should also quickly return to colonial concepts and look back to…Madagascar. For the record – Polish claims seem even better documented and were taken seriously in the interwar period, and then also used in 1968. An adventurer, soldier and traveler, Maurycy August Beniowski, who was of Polish-Slovakian-Hungarian descent, after being taken into Russian captivity during the Bar Confederation, was exiled to Siberia and all the way to Kamchatka, from which he bravely escaped by traveling halfway around the world. Then he visited Madagascar several times partially accepted by the French, who were carrying out their colonization plans, but then established an independent settlement and adventurously planned even the creation of an independent state which ended in a skirmish with a detachment of French troops and the romantic death of the hero in 1786. Thanks to these Polish traces on the African island (and because of Słowacki’s poem) – Poland can plan a great geographic change and following in the footsteps of Donald Trump – the organization of Southern Poland (in Madagascar). However, looking realistically, it is impossible to see that Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world (almost 2 x the area of Poland), and there are up to 30 million inhabitants, rather not very sympathetic to claims after Beniowski, and the army is perhaps small (about 15 thousand soldiers) but probably adapted to local conditions. So why not try it energetically? Madagascar has big problems – only about 25-30% of the population has full access to electrification, and power plants (hydro, minimally coal, and some diesel generators, and biofuel – i.e. wood burning, and now the first RES) are only 1 GW. So maybe to start with (to provide electricity) … build them a nuclear power plant? And then promote a Slovak poem in the local Malagasy language? Only you have to watch out for Hungary and Slovakia, because they can also make their claims.
Onshore windmills stumble over restrictions
The never-ending tale of the windmill bill (currently in consultation) and the great attempt to move the minimum distance from buildings from 700m to 500m – just doesn’t end at all. More objections and new restrictions are being made in creative ways to limit the field for the windmill. The distance from the road lane and 1.5km from monuments are just the latest innovations in the amendment proposals to the law. In an interesting way (through further restrictions), windmills are being pushed farther and farther away (despite the fact that they are supposed to be closer) and the area for investment is decreasing quite dramatically. It seems that this is not the end because further applications are possible – for example, restrictions on the distance from places of religious practice (including shrines and wayside crosses), schools and educational facilities, museums and memorial chambers, walking and bicycle trails, swimming pools and other sports and recreational installations, military installations including historic bunkers and fortifications, fishing or hunting areas of hunting clubs, and areas of documented scenic and natural value. So the consultations will be prolonged, and every municipality hostile to windmills will already be planning a swimming pool and museum of local flora and fauna. Realistically and practically, everything will end around June 1 (the date of the second round of presidential elections) and then the law will be processed in its current form.