Abstract
The article analyzes opportunities of locating large-scale wind or solar farms in overburden disposal areas, formed as a result of opencast lignite mining. Its main purpose is to present different conditions and limitations for such investments in post-mining regions. The most important aspects include wind or sunlight conditions, geotechnical conditions of the overburden disposal areas where soil and rock materials were deposited during many years of lignite mining and local spatial planning conditions defined by local governments. These, and other conditions cause that the wind or photovoltaic plant investment in the overburden disposal area, might create a challenging process. The legal requirements are discussed in detail, regarding spatial, environmental and infrastructural characteristics of the overburden dumping sites situated inside Jóźwin II B and Jóźwin IIA open pits belonging to the PAK Konin Lignite Mine S.A. located in the west-central part of Poland. The results demonstrate that among the legal conditions for the construction of renewable energy plants, the most restrictive limitation concerns wind farms and precludes the rehabilitation of Konin overburden dumps in this direction. Until the construction of wind farms is legally impossible at closer distances to residential buildings, photovoltaic power plants are the only option for the development of post-mining areas towards large-scale renewable power generation.
Highlights
In Poland, many dumps and heaps have been formed as a result of lignite surface mining that intensified in the second half of the 20th century. These dumps and heaps cover huge areas, and their reclamation has largely been limited to agriculture, forestry, and sometimes public leisure amenities
It would be reasonable to use these largelignite post-mining sites for renewable energy generation, as the Europe’s Green Deal strategy [1] involves a number of challenges linked to a need for the European energy sector to undertake action, which will result in significantly higher shares of renewable energy sources in an integrated energy system [2,3]
A fundamental aim of any wind or solar farm investor is to maximize energy production, minimize capital and operating costs, and stay within constraints imposed by the law in order to obtain construction and operation permits for their power plant
Summary
In Poland, many dumps and heaps have been formed as a result of lignite surface mining that intensified in the second half of the 20th century. The article presents an overview of critical considerations in wind farm and solar farm location within mining spoil dumps and heaps since such developments pose serious challenges to investors. These challenges relate to natural conditions in terms of construction and potential power generation, grid connection limitations and other technical issues; local spatial planning, health, safety and environmental concerns are of the upmost importance
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