Legal Conditions for Investments in Renewable Energy in the Overburden Disposal Areas in Poland

Abstract

The article analyzes opportunities of locating large-scale wind or solar farms in overburden disposal areas, formed as a result of opencast lignite mining. Its main purpose is to present different conditions and limitations for such investments in post-mining regions. The most important aspects include wind or sunlight conditions, geotechnical conditions of the overburden disposal areas where soil and rock materials were deposited during many years of lignite mining and local spatial planning conditions defined by local governments. These, and other conditions cause that the wind or photovoltaic plant investment in the overburden disposal area, might create a challenging process. The legal requirements are discussed in detail, regarding spatial, environmental and infrastructural characteristics of the overburden dumping sites situated inside Jóźwin II B and Jóźwin IIA open pits belonging to the PAK Konin Lignite Mine S.A. located in the west-central part of Poland. The results demonstrate that among the legal conditions for the construction of renewable energy plants, the most restrictive limitation concerns wind farms and precludes the rehabilitation of Konin overburden dumps in this direction. Until the construction of wind farms is legally impossible at closer distances to residential buildings, photovoltaic power plants are the only option for the development of post-mining areas towards large-scale renewable power generation.

Site Selection of Wind Farms in Poland: Combining Theory with Reality

“…Thus, separate studies are being conducted to assess the visual impact of wind farms on sacral and historical complexes [87,88]. For quarries and waste rock dumps, it is also challenging to choose a buffer zone because, on the one hand, wind farms have to be built far away from the regime and hazardous objects, and on the other hand, wind farms can be built on mine or quarries recultivated lands [89]. Boundaries from cities and small settlements are also not provided, as no legal framework defines the minimum distance from them.…”