{"id":9528,"date":"2022-03-25T17:32:50","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T16:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euracoal.eu\/?p=9528"},"modified":"2022-03-25T17:32:50","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T16:32:50","slug":"rfcs-coal-summit-2022-brussels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pipe.euracoal.biz\/?p=9528","title":{"rendered":"RFCS Coal Summit 2022, Brussels"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 22 March, EURACOAL members joined Commission officials and other stakeholders at a summit meeting in Brussels to launch the first \u201cBig-Ticket\u201d call under the recently modernised EU Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS). The RFCS was established in 2002 after the fifty-year treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) expired. At the coal day, there was a broad discussion on technologies and their role in a \u201cjust transition\u201d, but also on energy security. During the preceding steel day, emphasis was put on the green transition, with discussions on how to curb emissions in the steel sector, the need for digitalisation and the rollout of hydrogen in steel production. This 20th<\/sup> anniversary celebration was web-streamed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Rosalinde van der Vlies, Director for Clean Planet, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Rosalinde van der Vlies<\/strong>, Director for Clean Planet in DG\u00a0RTD, welcomed participants, adding that the RFCS research programme\u2019s \u201crebirth\u201d would align it with the EU’s ambition under the European Green Deal to be the world\u2019s first climate-neural continent<\/em> by 2050. She explained the restructuring of the RFCS management, with many responsibilities now handed over to the Research Executive Agency (REA), and welcomed the new Big-Ticket calls as a \u201crenaissance\u201d. On Ukraine, she offered EU solidarity and spoke of the need for secure, sustainable and affordable energy throughout the world, beginning with REPowerEU and the energy transition. Paul Webb<\/strong>, Head of the \u201cGreen Europe\u201d Department at REA, added encouraging words on how it will manage the \u20ac780\u00a0million budget of the RFCS over the next seven years (\u20ac40\u00a0million annual calls + \u20ac71\u00a0million Big-Ticket calls) so that the transition is just, rather than the brutal industrial change he grew up with in northern England. He said he was keen to promote the RFCS and ensure research results were put to good use in support of the European Green Deal.<\/p>\n

Keynotes<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Nicola de Michelis, Director Smart and Sustainable Growth, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, European Commission<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nicola de Michelis<\/strong>, Director Smart and Sustainable Growth at DG REGIO, spoke of a \u201ckey juncture\u201d with many new EU programmes being launched at the same time as a war is taking place in Ukraine. Regardless of short-term tensions in the energy markets, the 2030 and 2050 climate targets remained in place, he said, and the tensions actually justified an acceleration of climate policies and reduce the use of fossil fuels via REPowerEU. \u201cCoal is part of our past, not our future,\u201d he continued, and the European Green Deal would see the phase-out of coal, lignite, oil shale and peat. He explained how instruments under the \u20ac100\u00a0billion cohesion policy would contribute to the transition, including the Just Transition Fund to help particular regions.<\/p>\n

EURACOAL President Vladim\u00edr Budinsk\u00fd<\/strong> was represented by the Secretary General Brian Ricketts<\/strong> who began with a potted history of the ECSC and RFCS, highlighting the Treaty of Paris which sought to establish \u201ca broader and deeper community among peoples long divided by bloody conflicts\u201d. Seventy years later and access to energy was once again creating conflict in Europe, he said, Ukraine having lost significant coalfields in 2014 and now faced an aggressive invasion. EURACOAL wanted an end to the war in Ukraine. Given the EU\u2019s dependency on Russia for around half of its imported coal, one quarter of its oil and 40% of its fossil gas, he also called for an end to the war on coal as Europe would need all sources of energy over the coming months and years.<\/p>\n

Back in 1952, when coal was king, a \u201cHigh Authority\u201d was set up to collect an \u201cequalisation levy\u201d on coal producers with below-average costs, and limit the subsidies that could be granted to producers with above-average costs. Mr.\u00a0Ricketts explained that this levy funded the European institutions and in 2002 when the ECSC Treaty expired, the remaining monies were used to create a trust fund for coal and steel research \u2013 the RFCS. He commended the European Commission for its successful modernisation of the RFCS legal basis to allow bigger investments in research and a change of direction in line with the European Green Deal. He thought it fitting that coal industry levies were now being used to help transform the industry.<\/p>\n

On the current energy crisis, Mr. Ricketts said finding replacement suppliers for the 50 million tonnes of Russian coal that the EU imports each year was the first challenge. Poland, he said was lucky to still have many underground coal mines, while Germany, the Czech Republic and eight other member states in eastern and south-eastern Europe could rely on their lignite mines.<\/p>\n

On future research, Mr.\u00a0Ricketts mentioned the opportunities to use more coal mine methane and believed that the new RFCS Technical Guidelines covered the most important areas of the coal transition, including coal power plant repurposing, to point the industry in new directions. He hoped that the \u201cjust transition\u201d would leave no one behind, as promised by the Commission, and wished those preparing proposals the best of luck as they build on the foundations of coal.<\/p>\n

Dr.\u00a0Oliver Then<\/strong>, Managing Director of VGB Energy, congratulated the Commission on its management of the RFCS over the last twenty years and looked forward to the next twenty as the EU, if not the continent, moves to climate neutrality. He showed coal\u2019s current role in heat and power supply, noting that some EU countries are still heavily reliant on coal while others are as dependent on fossil gas. The phase-out of coal would require investment in RES and energy storage, but also a \u201cbridge\u201d whose type and length was uncertain given the changing perspective on fossil gas, he mulled.<\/p>\n

Dr.\u00a0Then took participants on a voyage from the 1950s to 2030s during which times the priorities for coal power research had evolved from increasing capacity and availability to meet demand, through reducing emissions and improving efficiency for sustainability, to today\u2019s requirement of maximising flexibility to balance RES and repurposing of former power plant sites. He showcased COMTES700 \u2013 an RFCS project which built on earlier Framework Programme projects with the aim of building a coal power plant operating with high efficiency at 700\u00b0C \u2013 and RECPP which was laying the foundations for future projects involving power utilities from across Europe. Real projects that make the best, energetic use of existing assets with new technologies was a goal that the RFCS was well placed to support, he concluded.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

RFCS projects<\/em><\/p>\n

Prof. Alicja Krzemie\u0144<\/strong>, chair of the EURACOAL Technical Research Committee, was one of seven who presented successful RFCS projects, RECOVERY in her case. Debo Adams<\/strong> of the International Centre for Sustainable Carbon explained how the CoalTech2051 project had been one stepping stone on the transformation of the IEA Clean Coal Centre towards its new remit on sustainable carbon. From PPC, Dr.\u00a0Christos Roumpos<\/strong> explained how the SUMAD project was contributing to the sustainable use of spoil dumps. Meanwhile, Adolf Aum\u00fcller<\/strong> spoke enthusiastically about the GreenDEALCO2 project on behalf of VGB and participants enjoyed hearing about RAFF from Barbara Rogosz<\/strong> from Poltegor Institute, a project that gives guidance on the safe flooding of former open pit mines. The METHENERGY PLUS and i3upgrade (methanol from captured CO2<\/sub> and renewable H2<\/sub>) projects were also presented, demonstrating the wide scope and ambition of recent RFCS projects.<\/p>\n

Panel session<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr.\u00a0Tomasz Rogala<\/strong>, Senior Vice President of EURACOAL, reflected on the background to EU climate targets and the Fit-for-55 package, including UNFCCC COP\u00a024 in Katowice \u2013 headquarters the Polish Mining Group (PGG) where he is Chairman of Board. He summarised the Polish energy sector\u2019s need for coal and lignite: 70% of electricity is generated from these sources. Looking ahead, demand for the steam coal and lignite used for heat and power generation would, he said, fall from 86\u00a0million tonnes in 2020 to 63.4\u00a0million tonnes in 2030. However, demand had been disrupted by the war in Ukraine and more coal \u2013 perhaps 10\u00a0million tonnes more each year \u2013 would be needed to avoid dependency on Russian fossil fuels, he added. In 2018, as President of EURACOAL, he had warned of such risks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr.\u00a0Rogala explained the agreement reached in 2020 by the government, trade unions and local authorities to end coal production in Poland by 2049, allowing not only time this decade for investments in environmentally friendly IGCC with CCS (e.g.<\/em> a 250\u00a0MW plant at Laziska), but also time for workers to adapt and time to build a secure, new energy system comprising RES and nuclear with some fossil gas. His own company, which already uses 93\u00a0mcm of coal mine methane each year, is preparing to use more methane, including from closed mines. To reduce emissions from household, he described Karolinka<\/em>, a smokeless fuel that would not be out of reach for households in Silesia where the 1\u00a0000 \u20ac\/month average salary is below the EU average. Off-gas from the fuel processing would feed district heating plants, he added, as part of a \u20ac150-250\u00a0million investment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Dr. Tomasz Rogala, EURACOAL Senior Vice President and Chairman of the Board, Polska Grupa G\u00f3rnicza S.A.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He concluded that Poland\u2019s nuclear programme will take time which means thinking about how coal is used in the next decade so the country does not become import dependent. He was optimistic that CCS \u2013 already developed in the US and Canada \u2013 was a technology that should be applied and governments needed to decide where.<\/p>\n

From RWE, Tilman Bechthold<\/strong>, Vice President R&D, outlined his company\u2019s past involvement with several important RFCS projects. He noted that RWE would invest \u20ac50\u00a0billion in RES by 2030 and had agreed to phase out lignite power generation by 2038. This meant replacing jobs in mines, power plants and support industries, he continued, before moving on to the potential for new energy technologies, e.g.<\/em> zero-carbon hydrogen, deep geothermal heat, power-to-X and a circular-carbon economy. He very much looked forward to demonstrating these and other technologies at pilot plants funded under the new RFCS programme. Mr.\u00a0Bechthold confirmed the participation of RWE in the Big-Ticket call with a project called GreenDeal INERTIA to demonstrate the feasibility of a battery-driven grid-stability service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 22 March, EURACOAL members joined Commission officials and other stakeholders at a summit meeting in Brussels to launch the first \u201cBig-Ticket\u201d call under the recently modernised EU Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS). The RFCS was established in 2002 after the fifty-year treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) expired. At […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9550,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whats-new"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pipe.euracoal.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pipe.euracoal.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pipe.euracoal.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pipe.euracoal.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pipe.euracoal.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pipe.euracoal.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pipe.euracoal.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pipe.euracoal.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pipe.euracoal.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pipe.euracoal.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}