Today’s site visit was an eye-opening introduction to how electricity is made: CEZ’s power plant in Ledvice. CEZ is a large energy company that supplies electricity to the Czech Republic’s grid. The plant in Ledvice focuses on burning coal to make electricity for the grid. The brown coal from the mine is cleaned and processed through many steps to extract energy; we saw the networks of tubes, reactors, and other equipment that filled tall, warehouse-sized rooms in the facility.
We also visited an open coal mine, which was new to most of us. Driving amidst the green fields, we suddenly came across a landscape that looks like a desert canyon. Huge machines had dug ~300m into the ground, leaving an exposed field of coal at the bottom, surrounded by walls of the earth above it. (Since I’m American, I must measure in terms of football fields. This mine, opened in the 1960s, was the size of many football fields, in length and width!) More machines collect the coal, to be sent to the plant. Both the coal and the sand in the earth above it felt like a hybrid of sand, powder, and crumbly rock. Mixed into the coal was pyrite (fool’s gold) and other types of rocks, which were in the way of the energy production effort but fun for us to scavenge. It was thrilling to play in the coal and admire the scale of the mine and machines.
CEZ’s emphasis on environmental and social responsibilities, which is incorporated into Czech law, was interesting: one of its goals is sustainability. It must be difficult to balance the high demand for energy (and traditional ways of generating it) with the push to be environmentally cleaner (requiring more innovation). Aside from its renewable energy ventures, CEZ is striving to make fossil fuel methods more eco-friendly. For example, it’s required to put money aside for revitalization of the land after mining: once a mine is filled back in, environmental professionals put plants and lakes there to invite wildlife. (Additionally, its upcoming goal is to close the coal mine by 2030.) As for social impacts, CEZ seems to make the most of its plant facilities by using the steam byproducts to provide heat to the nearby town. In addition, since its electricity is critical for the country’s daily life, professionals monitor the produced electricity wattage around the clock.
Swanson School of Engineering 