Ewa Kurdyła, Director of the Polish Wind Energy Association, was a guest at the IVth Congress of Women held in the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw on 14-15 September 2012. In the “Shale, nuclear power or green energy?” panel she participated in a discussion on the energy sector and a vision for its future.
‘In accordance with International Energy Agency estimates RES potential is sufficient to satisfy the current and future global demand for electricity, even if the demand increases 6-fold. A meeting such as the Congress of Women is a perfect opportunity to provide reliable knowledge on the benefits stemming from the development of renewable energy’, Ewa Kurdyła said.
The debate was participated by supporters of different energy acquisition concepts, including Lena Kolarska-Bobińska, Citizen’s Platform European Parliament MP, Teresa Kamińska, President of the Board of the Pomeranian Special Economic Zone, Barbara Labuda, the former Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Luxembourg, Agnieszka Grzybek, Chairperson of Partia Zielonych 2004, and Ewa Kurdyła, Director of the Polish Wind Energy Association.
In her presentation Ewa Kurdyła discussed the issues related to social awareness and acceptance for wind energy and presented benefits stemming from its development. The key benefits include revenues for commune budgets from real property tax, revenues for land owners from lease rent, no gas or dust emissions, lack of waste, no fuel costs, new jobs, and many more. Renewable energy is slowly emerging in our homes – this is a result of a number of factors resulting in the need for intense development of renewable energy sources, among others: the increase in electricity demand, Poland’s commitments stemming from membership in the European Community, increasingly strict environmental protection regulations and slow new capacity growth in the conventional energy sector.
‘It has to be stressed that wind energy presents vast opportunities to decrease investment and operational costs, hence to decrease our electricity bills. Now we all have an alternative and may use renewable energy sources in our own homes. Today a consumer is not only an active participant of the dialogue, but can also initiate the dialogue and affect its course’, Ewa Kurdyła added.