The country led Europe in installations of renewable-friendly heat pumps per capita this year, with their sales more than doubling compared to a year ago. Just last year, Polish policymakers aimed to install 10 gigawatts of solar panels by 2030 — a goal it has already surpassed.
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Coal in Poland now costs triple what it did last year, and the wholesale price of natural gas in Europe is 10 times what it was a year ago.
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Poland no longer produces much of the harder, cleaner-burning coal that is best for home use — it burns most of its domestic coal in its power plants. Since about 40 percent of the coal burned in Polish homes had been coming from Russia, the country now faces the strange prospect that it could run out of coal this winter, leaving citizens shivering.
Polish leaders have always said that coal will be domestic, cheap and reliable, Pandera said. “And now we see it’s Russian coal, it’s expensive and it might not be there,” she said.
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Krzysztof Januszek, who runs a heat pump installation company called Eco Synergia, said that interest in his technology boomed within days of Russian tanks rolling into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
“It started in the beginning of March, right after the war started,” he said. Poles know the changes to energy supplies are likely permanent, he said, meaning that they are willing to make bigger investments to adapt to the new situation in which it is better to avoid gas and to use as little energy as possible. Waiting times for heat pumps in Poland are now six months, he said.
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Other policy changes that could make a difference — such as making it easier to build onshore wind power — are still mired in discussions in the Polish Parliament.
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