Today, we spent the entire morning and afternoon driving to and visiting České Energetické Závody, meaning Czech Energy Company (CEZ). Not only is CEZ the largest energy generation company is the Czech Republic, but it is also one of the biggest energy generation companies in all of Europe. If I remember correctly from today’s presentation, they are currently ranked 13th out of the energy generation companies in Europe.
We drove over an hour out to get to CEZ and were warmly greeted by the employees. We were given a presentation about the power plant (Ledvice Power Plant) and the open pit coal mine (Dul Bilina Mining Site) we were seeing today. After the presentation, we took a tour around certain areas of the power plant. We were not allowed to take photos inside the power plant, so I can only provide photos of the outside. But the impressive size of the plant should give a good idea of just how expansive the engineering inside the building was.
After the power plant, we took a minute for lunch, which was also generously provided by CEZ. We wrapped up with a video of how coal came to be, which gave us a brief introduction to the open coal pit we were about to see. We split our group into two and took separate trucks to the open mining pit. I have never seen anything like this in my life. I’m not sure if I ever will again! The open pit was so incredibly vast. I don’t think I can understand just how big it was.
As we viewed different areas within the pit, we got to see a large excavator, which was clawing away at clay to expand the mining pit. While gathering coal is anything but green, CEZ limits the width of its mining pit. As it reaps the materials from the earth, the company needs to keep expanding outwards so they can continue to gather more resources. But CEZ does not want to leave large pits throughout the Czech lands, so as they expand, they also fill in the land behind them. Each year, they expand by 100 m away from the plant and fill in the 100 m closest to the plant, essentially preforming a horizontal translation of the mining pit.
CEZ also mentioned that their current coal power plant has a lifetime of 40 years, meaning that in 2057, it will no longer be allowed to operate. When this occurs, CEZ hopes to have stopped gathering new coal and have moved strictly to renewables.
CEZ is a perfect example of a company working to balance its environmental benefits while still providing their country with energy. The Czech Republic wants to be as green as possible, but as a landlocked country with plenty of people, hydro, solar, and wind power are difficult to implement. Of the three, solar has the best chance with the government sponsoring it through subsidies. Nuclear seems to be the most popular choice as a renewable and the future of Czech energy. Unfortunately, the Czech Republic has large reserves of brown coal, which is very dirty to burn.
However, CEZ cannot immediately switch to something like renewables. Not only is it impossible at this current stage, but it would also be economically destructive. Finding the balance between renewable energy, cost, and quality of life of the citizens is very difficult for a government sponsored company, but CEZ is working hard to turn greener each year.
Swanson School of Engineering 