“The end of coal is closer than previously expected. It’s only been missing for a few years, maybe until the end of the decade,” stated the deputy chairman of the board of ČEZ Pavel Cyrani during a press conference dedicated to the planned changes at the Détmarovice power plant.
The semi-state company wants to invest approximately two billion crowns in these changes in the coming years. Gas, biomass boilers and cogeneration units should start operating in the power plant area. As a transitional phase.
The planned goal of ČEZ within the framework of the Détmarovice power plant is the construction of a modular reactor. “A modular reactor would be able to replace everything we present here today for the transition phase until 2050, when we should become completely emission-free,” explained the power company’s plans, its spokesperson Ladislav Kříž.
“Preparations are already underway. Dětmarovice is one of the two currently non-nuclear locations that we selected for the first stage of the construction of small modular reactors. The other is the power plant in Prunéřov in the Ústí Region,” added the ČEZ spokesperson.
A geological survey was recently carried out in Detmarovice, the results of which CEZ is now awaiting. However, it is still too early to estimate the time when the construction of the modular reactor could begin.
The problem with small modular reactors, which are widely considered to be one of the ways to solve energy independence, is the fact that there are not yet any that work in commercial operation.
All of them are still only in the plan. “At the moment it is difficult to estimate when we could start construction. We have already said that the first modular reactor will be built sometime around 2035 in Temelín, which is a site that has been investigated from the point of view of nuclear safety. We are counting on the construction of additional modular reactors, if it works out in Dětmarovice, sometime after 2040,” added Ladislav Kříž.
The existing power plant will be dismantled
The eventual price of the Detmarovice modular reactor is not yet clear due to accumulated experience. “In any case, it would be a completely new power plant. The existing one will be completely dismantled, a small modular reactor would be built in its place,” the spokesperson concluded.
The gas boilers, biomass boilers and cogeneration units that will replace the expiring coal-fired boilers will be located approximately half a kilometer from the current hall with boilers and turbines.
“A mix of gas and biomass boilers and cogeneration units will provide us with the most advantageous energy mix for the supply of electricity and heat for the surrounding towns,” commented Rostislav Díža, CEO of ČEZ Teplárenská, on the nearest plans of ČEZ in Dětmarovice.
“It is being built outside the main site of the power plant, which will then enable us to build small modular reactors,” he explained.
A wind power plant is being planned in Zátor in Bruntálsk
The heat from Dětmarovice will continue to travel both to Orlová and to Bohumín. Representatives of both cities signed a contract for supplies for the next years, at least until 2040.
“The output of the new sources will exceed 70 MW and will ensure a stable supply of heat to all our customers,” explained the director of Elektrárna Dětmarovice, Martin Hančar.
ČEZ also expects to invest in the modernization of power plant equipment in other places in the Moravian-Silesian Region. “Approximately forty photovoltaic power plant projects with an installed capacity of over 850 MWp are being prepared across the region, wind power plants are being prepared in the Opava region and Bruntál region,” ČEZ spokesperson for the Moravian-Silesian region, Vladislav Sobol, described some of the projects being prepared. “For example, in Zátor in Krnovsk, we have agreed with the municipality on the construction of a wind power plant with a capacity of about 20 MW by 2030,” he outlined.
The Dětmarovice power plant is located in the northern part of Karvinsk, not far from the Polish border.
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