ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the diffusion of cleaner technologies in power generation in Poland and its role in solving local and transboundary pollution issues associated with the emission of sulphur dioxide. Energy combustion is a major source of anthropogenic emissions of sulphur dioxide. The Polish power subsector contributes half of the sulphur dioxide emissions and about a third of the emissions of dusts and nitrous oxides. The chapter focuses on the penetration of foreign capital directed at the cleaner use of coal in the power sector during the first half of the 1990s. It shows that the flows of capital aimed at the modernisation of the Polish power sector and more particularly at the cleaner combustion of coal. The chapter describes the existence of a sulphur question in Poland and the links with the production of electricity. Electricity generation in Poland is characterised by its almost exclusive coal basis, the maturity of the power plant stock, and the importance of co-generation.
