Burn, baby, burn

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov gave the Kyoto protocol a kiss of life last week when he announced at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development that Russia would ratify the treaty on global warming soon. Russia's backing means that enough big producers of greenhouse gases have signed up to bring the treaty into effect. With Poland's carbon emissions down from 1990 levels, it finds itself on course to engage in emission trading upon Kyoto's implementation in 2008, a scenario that could fuel a potential windfall for the national budget. Kyoto's go-ahead also stands to intensify investment in renewable energy plants in Poland - something Jerzy Domański, the president and founder of Krzykawka-based Jero in southern Poland, is happy about. Jero, which appeared on the Polish market in 1998, specializes in the production and sales of salix viminalis saplings, a fast-growing willow ideal for bio-fuel production. A one-hectare willow plantation, which can be renewed on a yearly basis, can produce up to 30 to 40 metric tons of biomass for use in bio-fuel heating and electricity generators. Willow biomass is not only cheaper than coal, but it is three times cheaper than oil and natural gas, Domański said.

Domański started his company in anticipation of a renewable energy boom, most recently confirmed by Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen's (PKN Orlen) bid to buy the Wrocław-based spirits producer Polmos, which makes bioethanol, a component in bio-fuels. "In 1997, there was a new renewable energy law passed, and that was when I became interested in willows," Domański said. "The law (which sets compulsory renewable energy usage quotas for industry) was only ratified three years later, but I kept at it and continued developing the plantations even when there was a moment when it was not certain it would be ratified." Since the law's passage two years ago, Domański's business has flourished with more and more farmers showing interest in alternative and profit-generating uses for their land. "I started the whole business with about 2,000 saplings, which I cultivated every year and expanded exponentially as a result," he said. "Today I have more than 5,000 clients who on average buy up to 500-1,000 saplings, but I'm expecting as many as 30,000 clients next year." Domański said, however, that business is still in its formative stage, although it's developing dynamically enough to make Poland a "green Kuwait" within the next 10 years. His own business has expanded to supply a national network of more than 84 sales distributors in the past four years. "At the moment we are still preparing plantations for mass bio-fuel production," Domański said. "No one is really harvesting their plantations yet since there isn't enough to make them profitable and renewable for long-term bio-fuel supply. I predict that we should see the mass felling of willows (for bio-fuel production) by January 2006 - when the new penalties for burning coal come into effect." Poland has implemented an EU-influenced strategy to increase its use of renewable energy to 7.5% by 2010, with fines slapped on industries failing to abide by the official quotas.

This has encouraged more businesses, industries and plants to invest in their own bio-fuel power plants along with biomass plantations, Domański said. And the past year in particular has seen a rise in the number of larger businesses and clients seeking to make use of Jero's willows. "There's definitely a new type of client this year who is ready to make larger investments," Domański said. "Before it was mainly small farmers who only bought as much as they could afford with the aim of cultivating it themselves. That, of course, takes time. These new clients want everything immediately." And renewable energy specialists have backed all bids to popularize bio-fuel energy and heating plants due to their cleaner emissions. "Compared to coal, it's not a better fuel, but burning biomass reduces sulfur and nitrogen emissions, which are responsible for acid rain," said Ludmiła Łakomiec, the office director of the European Commission's Baltic Renewable Energy Center. "Poland is on the point of developing its use of biomass, but we shouldn't overlook that there is also a lot of waste from the logging industry, which should also be used for these purposes - not just wood from special plantations." Biomass has the best chance of further development because it's inexpensive, Łakomiec said. There are already scores of local authorities who have invested in generators for providing heat and electricity for towns and communities, such as gmina Janów Śląski, which invested in a 370-kilowatt generator. Łakomiec estimated there are more than 100,000 small-scale generators of this kind in Poland. "More and more are being built all the time because of the introduction of fines for emissions and the increase in the price of coal, oil and gas," she said.