During the presentation portion of our visit, we got to see many statistics about the work that the CEZ group is doing. This involved everything from creating new solar and wind farms to transforming coal mines into clean energy resource centers. In CEZ’s 2030 vision, they hope to achieve climate neutrality by 2040, provide the most cost-effective resources to their customers, and promote sustainable practices and standards. To obtain this goal, they are implementing initiatives such as expanding current nuclear plants, building new ones, constructing small modular reactors (SMRs), increasing renewable resources, and decarbonizing heating by converting coal sites into ones that burn hydrogen instead.
After visiting the facilities, I would say that CEZ has a good foundation to help create a more sustainable resource future. Even at the Dul Bilina mines, we saw that they were actively restoring forestation around the site. The investment it takes to do the projects CEZ is doing is crazy, having to get subsidies from the government because CEZ will lose money from it. Hopefully, over time, these practices can become more accessible.
From when I took ENGR 1905: Current Issues in Sustainability, we learned about some of these clean energy implementation practices, and today’s visit reinforced the fact that converting into clean energy does not come with short-term profit. Developing sustainability is a heavy investment that is not great for short-term finances, but will save our world in the long-run.
Swanson School of Engineering 