Environmental aspects of energy supply of buildings in Poland

Abstract

The article presents the assessment of the environmental impact of 9 variants of building heat supply for heating purposes. The building energy standards and the main primary energy carriers being in use in Poland were taken as input data. The subject of analysis was a single-family house characterized by a utility energy demand of 47 kWh/(m2 year). An environmental impact analysis was made using the specification for LCA in damage categories encompassing human health, ecosystem quality and natural resources depletion. From the obtained results it has been found that coal-based technologies in Poland's building energy supply systems are capable of reducing the noxious environmental impact. An example of such a system is the effective heat distribution network with a coal-based cogeneration energy source. From the point of view of radical low emission reduction, an interesting solution is the effective heat distribution network with a gas-based cogeneration energy source. Nevertheless, forecasts about the development of renewable energy source installations in Poland indicate that a significant role in building heat supply systems will be played by solar systems and geothermal systems using heat pumps. Achieving the environmental acceptance of heat pumps in Poland's conditions requires a decisive intensification of efforts to increase the share of renewable energy sources in electric energy generation processes in the central electric power system and in local and individual systems, as well as the continuation of the processes of thermal insulation of already existing buildings.