AFP: Nuclear power or shale gas? Poland may have to choose soon
Poland has set it sights on building its first nuclear power station and developing shale gas, but experts believe it may soon have to choose one or the other as investing in both could prove too costly.An EU nation of 38.2 million, Poland currently relies on its vast coal reserves to produce about 90 percent of the electricity it consumes.
Warsaw is scrambling to find alternatives to meet EU targets on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The government also believes that tapping its own shale gas deposits could assure strategic energy independence from Soviet-era master Moscow.
Krzysztof Kilian, the chief executive of the state-owned PGE, Poland's largest utility involved in the developing both the nuclear and shale gas sectors from scratch, recently insisted "one rules out the other."
"Pursuing these two programmes at the same time cannot be crowned with success," he told delegates at a debate on Poland's energy future in Warsaw.