Sustainability

 

Increasing the share of renewable energy sources in total consumption

Developing a competitive low-carbon economy is a long-term priority of the energy policy of Slovakia. In order to achieve the low-carbon economy, Slovakia considers optimum use of the renewable energy sources and nuclear energy as keys.

The mandatory goal of the European Union for the share of energy originating from the renewable energy sources in gross final energy consumption is at least 32% in 2030. In order to achieve the mandatory goal, the 2030 contributions of the member states to the goal have been in line with the approximate trajectory of the contribution since 2021, wherein the contribution of Slovakia should be 19.2%.

We have been “opening the door” to this field of the “low-carbon strategy” successively and trying to contribute through partial measures to achieve the determined goal.

As we would be depending on purchase and supplies of commodities at market prices for production of electricity from the fossil fuels, the proposed solution for reducing of the energy dependency lies in in-house electricity production and use of wind and solar energy.

From the economic point of view, the main advantage of the electricity produced in this way is the production costs, i.e., electric energy price, which are stable throughout the lifecycle and they are in fact not influenced by the electricity market. In addition, the electricity generated from the renewable energy sources (hereinafter referred to RES only) will be supported by reduced rates for some controlled components of the end price, and will be capable of competing with electricity generated in a traditional way.

Another advantage compared to commercial producers who deliver the produced electricity to the grid is that Duslo will use the same for its own consumption. In other words, when no such sources are available, we would have to buy electricity anyway.

On the other hand, the main disadvantage of the RES is the nature of production, which is directly dependent on weather conditions. Therefore, the production is not stable and considering our responsibility for any variations, forced operation measures would need to be made to eliminate the negative economic impacts of the implementation.

At present, there is a change to the regulatory policy and changes to laws are expected to provide space for construction and connection of the RES to the electricity grid.

Besides reduced dependency on the electric energy supply, the electric energy produced in this way may be used for hydrogen production by water electrolysis followed by ammonium production. That would reduce consumption or dependency on the natural gas supplies.

At present, Duslo a.s. Šaľa applies for assigning of an IPCEI status (Important Projects of Common European Interest) to the project of green hydrogen production of which component is construction of RES. The technical parameters of the project include a 20 MW electrolyzer, wind park of installed power 36 MW, and a solar power plant of installed power 14 MW.  The implementation of said project is scheduled between 2021-2026.

The project deals with creation of a complete value chain from the RES construction and green electricity production, development of green hydrogen production plant up to warehousing the same and use of the existing Ammonium 4 operation and its commercial use in transport sector.

The main goal of the project is reduction of the company’s carbon footprint, however, further synergistic effects include reduced dependency on electricity and natural gas supplies and balancing the variation of electric energy consumption.