Poland has the second largest coal industry in the EU, but while the majority of other member states will stop burning the dirtiest of all fossil fuels this decade, Poland has no such plan. That is, except for the coal region of Eastern Greater Poland, which has taken matters into its own hands and plans to be coal free by 2030.
Inaugurated in April 2022, the 204MW Kozani solar park, built adjacent to several lignite mines, is the largest utility-scale solar farm in southeastern Europe. The first of a planned 3GW of solar power to be built in the country’s lignite regions, it represents just the beginning of Greece’s ongoing massive expansion of solar generation capacity.
The transition of entire regions, and striving towards a sustainable, green and climate-neutral economy requires both a systemic approach aimed at providing comprehensive and overarching strategies, but also providing detailed, tailor-made and co-designed support for smaller stakeholders so that it really is a just transition, leaving no one behind.
People in Sivas, Eastern Turkey have been breathing the poison of the local Kangal coal-fired power plant for three decades now.
People in Sivas, Turkey, have been suffering the toxic impacts of coal for three decades. They say they want change, and that installing σolar panels on the region’s coal sites is a big part of the answer.
The Solar Potential of Coal Sites in Turkey report shows that approximately half of Turkey’s open-cast coal mines are suitable for conversion to solar farms.
The end of Spain’s coal industry presents communities on the front line with numerous challenges and opportunities.
The local communities of Milas and Yatağan in Muğla province of Turkey, have been living under the destructive impacts of Yeniköy, Kemerköy and Yatağan coal-fired power plants and coal mines for four decades. Now the last natural area, Akbelen Forest, with its trees, bushes, birds, thyme and mushrooms, is under the threat of an expanding open-pit lignite mine. We want to stand with the people of İkizköy, who have endured the destructive impacts of the Yeniköy, Kemerköy, and Yatağan coal-fired power plants and mines for four decades, and are fighting for what remains of their forests, olive groves and farming lands.
The end of Spain’s coal industry presents communities on the front line with numerous challenges and opportunities. Find out how one former mining town has set about adapting to a post-coal world by retrofitting an old coal mine to produce emission-free heat for the community.