2.2. Good Practices
The total prohibition of solid fuels, including biomass, was introduced in the City of Krakow in September 2019 [
14]. It was preceded by the largest project of co-financing RES in the region. Residents have replaced their old boilers and heating installations with modern sources and installations that meet current emission standards. The program has funded up to 100% of investment costs [
14]. Unfortunately, the program has not necessarily promoted the use of RES, nor the comprehensive thermal modernisation reducing heat consumption. Gaseous fuels and light heating oil installations have been allowed and installed on a large scale, which may for years inhibit household investment in heating systems based on RES.
By comparison, within the same KrOF, the Commune of Niepołomice implemented investment in heat pumps and PVs in its primary schools. The facilities had been thermally insulated and then equipped with complete low-emission heating installations. Smart control systems used there allow for the optimisation of the operation of heating devices depending on the weather and the needs of users.
Under the STOP SMOG program, launched by the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Technology in mid-2019, one can receive a grant covering up to 70% of furnace replacement costs and thermal modernisation of residential buildings. A maximum of PLN 60,000 can be spent on one building.
The Commune of Skawina—one of the KrOF edge cities—was the first in Poland to implement the STOP SMOG program launched by the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Technology in mid-2019. This is directed primarily towards the poorest residents of Skawina. By June 2022, 300 single-family buildings will undergo thermal modernisation [
34].
Under the project called “Eco-partners for solar energy in Małopolska”, PV panels on almost 800 private buildings in all communes of the Wieliczka poviat are subsidised. The leader of the project is the local NGO, and the municipality of Niepołomice is the coordinator of its part for Wieliczka poviat [
35]. The subsidy is covering 60 percent (minus VAT) of installation costs. The residents participating in the project are covering the remaining costs—about PLN 14–15,000 per household (with an assumed gross price of up to PLN 5000 for the installation producing 1 kW of energy). The investment is planned for two years (until June 2021).
Thanks to the participation of the Skawina and Wieliczka municipalities in the LIFE project, the inhabitants of these communes can take advantage of the free assistance of eco-advisors. Their competencies include:
Providing advice to residents on the replacement of heating and hot water sources (selection and optimisation of the type and power of the source) and on the entire thermal modernisation of the building (including thermal imaging),
Providing education for residents, and organising workshops on energy-saving and ecological and health benefits from the replacement of heat sources,
Cooperation with local media, action groups, parishes, NGOs, Volunteer Fire Brigade, Police, medical doctors, energy companies, road engineers, chambers of commerce/agriculture, etc.
In 2017, the City of Krakow, in cooperation with PGE Energia Ciepła company, implemented a system for the monitoring of media consumption in communal public buildings. The system covers 636 buildings, where all utilities are monitored: Water, electricity, heat from the municipal network, and gas. A specialised system has been used (developed by specialists from the PGE heat and power plant in Kraków) to assess the energy efficiency of buildings. The assessment is provided in four key areas: Media consumption, environmental impact, energy efficiency, and costs. In communal buildings, consumption of heat, gas, electricity, and water is monitored. These activities bring measurable financial effects: In 2018, the total cost of media consumed in the monitored buildings dropped by almost PLN 700,000 compared to 2017 [
36].
All KrOF municipalities develop and implement sustainable energy and climate action plans (SECAPs) and low carbon economy plans (PGNs). They elaborate audits and energy performance certificates of municipal buildings, and SWOT analyses of the local energy situation; implement energy-focused investments reducing emissions and costs of energy consumption in schools and other municipal buildings; activate local communities; employ eco-advisors, and organise energy days. They also cooperate with partners from other regions and from other EU countries.
All the edge cities of KrOF implemented the project entitled “Installation of renewable energy systems in the municipalities of Niepołomice, Wieliczka, Skawina, and Miechów on public buildings and private houses”—the so-called Solar Project. As a part of it, thermal modernisation of educational and sports facilities was carried out, including modernisation of ventilation, the application of heat pumps and PVs, financed both from the communes’ own resources and external sources [
37].
2.3. Organisation of Data, Generation of Arguments, and SWOT Analysis
SWOT matrix is a universal strategic planning technique and for decades it has been successfully used to organise and analyse information in the political economy and governance [
38]. The main source of data for the SWOT analysis was drawn from the inventory
Economic development on the basis of renewable energies [
32]. The analysis has been used as a tool for evaluation of the strategic position of the Krakow Functional Area towards the use of RES. All information has been reviewed to identify the key internal and external factors and the priority areas seen as important to achieving an objective, which is the improvement of air quality (
Figure 3).
According to the general rules of SWOT analysis, data have been divided into four categories of factors: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Each factor has been assigned to the appropriate quarter of the SWOT matrix.
The main criterion of the choice and assignment of factors and arguments was “the layperson point of view” which means a viewpoint of a person who is not trained in or does not have a detailed knowledge of the subject. As it was mentioned in the introduction, the most dangerous pollution (PM, B(a)P, and NO2) in KrOF is mainly a product of two types of sources: The combustion of solid fuels in household furnaces and the traffic increased by the everyday use of the private car. Both types of sources are related to individual decisions or customs of the residents: The choice of households’ source of energy for heating, and the choice of individual or public urban mobility options. Thus, it is to the largest extent the sum of individual laypeople decisions that determinate mostly the air quality in KrOF. For the success of the clean air policies, it is of fundamental importance to generate meaningful information—a set of arguments—to identify the competitive advantages of RES. According to this, the factors used in the SWOT matrix have the form of arguments, that is reasons or sets of reasons given in support of an idea and action towards the use of RES.
2.6. Analysis
The analysis was carried out according to the layperson perspective. The main goal was to define the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats resulting from policies and actions on different levels of governance to identify the internal and external factors that are favourable and unfavourable to the transition towards RES and elimination of harmful air pollutants in KrOF. The results of the SWOT analysis have been shown below in four tables (
Table 6,
Table 7,
Table 8 and
Table 9) representing four quarters of the SWOT matrix. For simplicity, the tables show only the selection of weaker arguments and all very strong arguments whose identification was the purpose of this analysis.
1. Due to the strong air pollution, the Program of Reduction of Surface Emission has been introduced in Krakow. This program is a system solution with legal regulations and requirements for households, combined with appropriate financial instruments, i.e., subsidies for the heat source replacement. In this case, decision-makers demonstrated consciousness that without substantial financial support, households would not be able to meet the requirements. The prohibition on burning solid fuels in heating boilers and the demand for replacing the heating systems was a turning point in the city’s history. It was a very strong stimulus that triggered the transition of households towards clean energy use.
2–4. A large group of strong arguments is related to subsidies or savings due to the RES installation. Possibilities of co-financing made many households eager to take such opportunities. The economic stimulus appeared as one of the strongest that could influence clean energy investment decisions.
5, 6. The economic arguments also affect the electromobility category and hybrid cars. Electric car owners do not have to pay for parking in Krakow. In addition, in the city centre, there are special parking spaces designated only for electric cars. In such a crowded city as Krakow, easy access to a parking space is a significant benefit and could be a motivating factor for investing in an electric car.
7. This argument concerns energy production. Major power plants use combined heat and power cogeneration, and co-combustion of biomass.
8–10. These arguments are related to plans to implement RES on a local scale, e.g., RES installations to supply municipal facilities. These types of projects would directly affect air quality in urban and suburban areas but do not have a direct impact on laypeople decisions concerning household heating and power supply. However, this type of action can accelerate the motivation of local authorities and residents towards making a joint effort to improve air quality.
While the Program of Reduction of Surface Emission in Krakow is a very strong argument in the Strengths quarter of the SWOT matrix, it is also one of the leading ones among weaknesses. On the one hand, the Program imposes a total prohibition on burning solid fuels and strongly supports the change of a heat source. On the other hand, RES is not directly promoted in this program. In effect, the most popular heat source replacement option is low-emission gas boilers. Households that have invested in such a source of heat, will not take any initiatives towards RES for many years to come. The program was the chance for the popularization of RES but did not use that opportunity.
The paradox of prohibition on burning solid fuels in households is a decrease in the share of the use of RES in home installations. It is because the biomass (wood, pellets, and briquettes) was a very popular source of energy for heating homes and now it is banned. From the RES development point of view, this needs to be regarded as a weakness, although it has been a very important regulation for the reduction of PM emission because the combustion of biomass in installations without filters contributes to the emission of particulate matter.
4, 5. These strong factors are related to electromobility and linked with politics and finance. The spatial planning policy based on the monofunctional economic zones, service and retail centres, and single-use housing estates—often dispersed—makes residents dependent on individual transport. Some of the implemented benefits form electromobility seem insignificant because for many people the city centre is not the destination but a transit route. The collective dependence on individual transport, together with the high cost of electric vehicles, cause that households are not switching from fossil-fuelled cars to clean urban mobility options on a significant scale.
6. This factor does not directly address layman but remains important. The difficulty with building large scale RES installations in the metropolitan area is related to spatial planning priorities. Krakow needs more and more space for housing and green natural and recreational areas. The city advantage is a large acreage of protected areas due to valuable natural conditions. They take up space that could be otherwise used for RES installations.
The classic approach to SWOT assumes that opportunities and threats relate to the external environment. However, in the non-business approach—that is used in this study—one can relate opportunities and threats to the future, as opposed to strengths and weaknesses that relate to the present.
1–3. In the group of strong factors defined in SWOT as opportunities, there are those related to natural, urban, and rural conditions, such as availability of organic matter, agricultural waste, or sewage sludge that could be used as a raw material in biogas plants. Krakow, as a large urban centre, has and will have a continues flow of significant quantities of waste organic matter. A similar situation is related to non-recyclable urban waste utilised in thermal waste treatment processes.
4. One of the signs of the transition to a low carbon economy is the thermal modernisation of public facilities.
5. Highly rated opportunities are connected with air quality policies and subsidy programmes that affect the attitude towards low-emission economy and support the investors financially.
6. The transition of the energy sector of the industry contributes to the improvement of air quality but is not significant for the transition of households to RES.
8. Education and availability of information change the layman’s attitude towards RES. However important as a supporting factor, such an attitude does not directly affect the decisions of households about making the transition to RES. The analysis shows that the majority of households have not made the investment decisions until the legal regulations were imposed and/or substantial subsidies were secured.
1, 3. Economic benefits and savings are among the main factors motivating households to change the heating system and source of electricity. On the other hand, the presumption that only a few neighbours could achieve significant financial benefits by renting land for the RES installation such as wind turbines, that will affect the quality of life in the area, could be a driving force for protests against such investments. Such protests are not common but when they occur, they can directly affect investments especially in rural and suburban areas.
2, 4, 5. A serious barrier to the development of larger RES installations is the costs of development of heating networks, particularly in smaller towns and suburban areas. Network solutions could be effective alternatives for dispersed heating sources, but they need substantial investments. For local governments and commercial companies in the energy industry, the expansion of such networks is not perceived as a profitable investment. That is the main reason why the transition towards clean heating systems is to a large extent dependent on the decisions of laypeople.