Poland cannot resign from using coal as an energy source and its energy mix can be significantly changed only by building a nuclear plant these are major conclusions of the debate entitled "Atom, coal, oil, gas, solar and wind where are we going?" that opened the III Innovations Forum in Rzeszow.
Maciej Owczarek, President of the Enea S.A., said that Poland is meant to be dependent on coal, from which more than 90 per cent of energy is produced. In his opinion, gasoline prices on the world's markets from economical point of view do not encourage to invest in projects based on imported gasoline, climate conditions prevent from thinking seriously about sun energy and wind energy is too instable.
In Zbigniew Kubackis opinion, The Director for Departament of Nuclear Energy in the Ministry of Economy, a recently initiated discussion on the security of nuclear power plants was related to Germanys decision on phase out of such facilities. The decision was political, followed by Italy and Switzerland freezing their programmes. Kubacki explains that most of the Polish neighbours- Slovakia, Czech Republic, Lithuania or Finland- either develop or are going to develop the nuclear programs. The Polish project aims at constructing two power plants with power around 6 GW. Mr. Kubacki claims that the share of nuclear energy will amount to 17 % in Polands case. Innovations and modern technologies are a must when it comes to nuclear power plants. Thats why, the technical university have already started to educate engineers for the future projects. Mr. Kubacki believes that nuclear energy is of great importance for Poland and it will become a great impulse for the economy.
As Owczarek emphasized, energy companies dont invest directly in innovations. We choose and buy new technologies, underlined the Chairman of Enei. As an example of responsible choice, Owczarek mentioned the settlement of the auction regarding the power unit construction in Kozienice. This will be the most modern coal-fired power plant in Poland and Europe. It will increase the power generation capacity of the Kozienice power plant by 1000 MW, ie. by one third. This power unit may be equipped in the future with facilities meant to capture and liquefy carbon dioxide. According to Owczarek, only nuclear energy could definitively change Polands mix energy. He emphasized that the decisions to abandon nuclear energy in several European countries has been politically motivated.
Dariusz Lubera, President of Tauron Polska Energia S.A., emphasized that the energy mix cannot be changed in a revolutionary way. He reminded that Tauron is now investing in wind power, biogas and biomass firing. Lubera also spoke about the need for cooperation between science and energy companies. In recent years we have established partnerships with 40 technical universities within the framework of clean coal technologies and low carbon technologies, he said. Speaking of innovation in sale, Taurons President cited the results of a survey conducted by his company among the nearly 100 thousand customers. It revealed that most customers want to be able to settle all the formalities by the Internet and, what is interesting, in Silesia up to 30% of customers would accept higher bills if the energy they get came from renewable sources. According to Lubera, changes and investments in the energy sector depend on a stable legal framework both in Poland and the European Union.
When speaking about investments Tomasz Karas, Director of Strategy and Capital Group Department, PGNiG, mentioned the most modern gas power plant in Europe built by Tauron in Stalowa Wola, as well as plans to built a power plant in Żerań and the one for the chemical industry in Kędzierzyn Koźle. With reference to shale gas, Karas emphasized that no one is currently able to accurately estimate Polish resources. In the coming years, we should find out whether shale gas will drastically change the Polish economy, he said. By way of example, he pointed to the U.S. currently building shale gas terminals.
Guenter Schlagowski, President of the Polish Institute of Passive Building Industry and Renewable Energy, said that we do not need nuclear energy and coal, because the key thing is to reduce energy demand by, for example, appropriate architecture and passive building industry.
From concept to practice innovation in medicine.
Alexander Sopliński, Undersecretary in the Deputy Ministry of Health expressed the view that currently the highest innovation performance is observed in medicine, not only in search of new drugs, but also in the field of diagnostics new technologies and devices. In his opinion, evaluation of medical schools should be done with the consideration of their efficiency and innovation. Higher education institutions which collaborate extensively with businesses have greater chances to obtain good results.
Tomasz Guzik, Chairman of the Polish Society of Internal Medicine, Jagiellonian University, and Vanderbildt University, Nashville, USA, Polish Nobel recipient, pointed out that the transfer of new technologies in medicine is much more difficult than in other areas. Drugs have to pass several stages of research and though testing of cellular models and animals is feasible in Poland, we observe shortage of Translational Medicine Centers, that would enable effective testing of drugs on humans.
Prof. Maciej Małecki, Vice President of The Polish Diabetes Association pointed out that at Polish universities, researchers are not paid for the number of patents, but for the number of scientific publications and their citation. Magdalena Burnat-Mikosz, Partner at Deloitte, Leader of R&D and Government Incentives in Central Europe, referred to Prof. Małeckis opinion and pointed out that the business does value publications very much in opposite to the patents and therefore the scientists need to put greater emphasis on the patents in order not to lose the benefits of their discoveries. She also drew attention to the need for greater compatibility of science and business: science being primarily focused on research whereas business o profit in Ms Burnats opinion but it we should create various forms of clustering cooperation as it is prone to bring the greatest benefits.
Maciej Gajewski, Policy & Communication Director, MSD Poland stated that cooperation between science and business is essential as the costs of innovation in medicine are huge clinical researches consume 50% of the cost of new drug development. Moreover, today work of professionals from many disciplines not only chemists and biochemists, but also IT experts must be used to create new drugs. Assessing innovation in pharmacy, he believes that currently half of the specialty pharmaceutical researches is done to develop specialized drugs with considerably smaller share of general specifics. concerns, and getting smaller is the share of generic drugs. The leader is, of course, oncology currently approx.120 new drugs in this field are being tested.
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