Today’s visit to the CEZ Group power plant both reinforced and challenged my engineering assumptions. Seeing the plant in person confirmed to me how impressive the innovative and technical aspects of energy engineering are. Such a large plant was controlled by a single control room with most of it being automated and having only a few workers needed in case of emergency. The plant was expansive and definitely required extensive planning and foresight to ensure it served its purpose efficiently and correctly. It also challenged my assumptions as I realized how connected engineering decisions are to environmental impacts. I did not realize how difficult it is to balance society’s energy needs with concerns about pollution, sustainability, and resources. The plant demonstrated that engineers must constantly work to improve energy production while reducing harmful environmental effects. The open mine definitely is not the most environmentally friendly option for energy production as it requires the surrounding area to be pretty much decimated. Furthermore coal is not a sustainable form of energy compared to nuclear, wind, or solar. However it is necessary to keep up with society’s high energy use and has its benefits like being able to slow or speed up production based on needs versus solar and wind energy which are uncontrollable by humans. While CEZ is trying to become coal free in the near future and close their open mine, the petrol crisis made worse by political conflicts like the Iran and Russian-Ukraine wars makes it difficult to put environmental considerations first.
Swanson School of Engineering 