**6. Environmental Consequences of Electricity Production**

Coal mining has traditionally been an important industry in the Slovak Republic. Hard coal is mostly used in the steel industry. Lignite is mostly used for power and heat generation at the Novaky power plant. In 2016, the power plant accounted for 6.4% of the total power generation in the country. The remaining extractable lignite reserves in the Slovak Republic would be sufficient to supply the Novaky power plant for at least for another 20 years. [36]

However, in recent decades, coal has moved from the largest energy source in the country's energy production, total primary energy supply (TPES), and electricity generation to only account for around 10–20% of the energy mixes. Starting the operation of nuclear power and the growth in bioenergy use has reduced the relevance of coal for the Slovak Republic's energy security, and some uneconomical coal mines are now closed down. The remaining coal mines depend on subsidies for domestic coal use in power generation. [36]

According to [36], two-thirds of coal supply is imported, mainly from the neighbouring countries and the Russian Federation. Russia accounted for 29% of total imports, followed by the Czech Republic (25%) and Poland (20%). Most of the imported coal is hard coal, but lignite also accounted for 11% of the total coal imports in 2017. Coal imports declined by 31% from 2007 to 2017, which is in line

with the decline in coal demand. Domestic lignite production accounts for 30% of the total coal supply when measured in weight, and 14% when measured in energy content. Lignite production decreased by 13% in the past decade and several coal mines are now closed.

The challenge is that domestic lignite is uncompetitive in power generation. However, its perceived security of supply benefits means that the government has adopted a compensation system for its use in electricity generation. Electricity from domestic lignite also benefits from a priority dispatch to the network, just as renewable energy. The subsidy costs electricity users around 100 million EUR a year, or around 14,000 EUR per employee in coal mining and related services. [37]

The government considers that an abrupt termination of coal mining in the Upper Nitra would radically increase unemployment in the area. It prefers to find solutions that gradually phase out coal mining and the subsidy to minimise the impact on employment. Subsidies are also granted to mine closures. From 2002 to 2015, a total subsidy of 6.7 million EUR was given to the mining company Bana Dolina a.s., to cover the exceptional costs to end the mining activities and to cover the severance payments to workers. The closure of the Cigel mine is expected to cost around six million EUR in state aid. [37]

According to [37], practically all domestic coal is used for power generation, and therefore it is part of the electricity security equation and its future should be considered in this context. The International Energy Agency notes that, to the extent that domestic lignite is currently needed for the security of supply, this concern will be alleviated as soon as the first 470 MW nuclear unit comes on line, which is planned for completion in 2018.

There is a long-standing unacceptable situation from point of view of the environmental protection and health and safety of the population in Slovakia, because the territory of Slovakia is mostly affected by the emissions arising from the cheapest electricity production in neighbouring countries, not as much from the Slovak electricity production sources and coal mining. The problem of coal-fired power production is not the technologies used to produce the electricity that must meet the strict emission limits that are set by the EU and Slovak legislation. The problem is the method of coal mining and the preparation of fuel, in general. In neighbouring countries, the environmentally unacceptable surface mining of coal is the main source of environment pollution.

It is evident that "responsible persons", not only activists, are aware of the effects and consequences of dust scatter, so the fuel dumps have to be covered by the Best Available Techniques reference documents (BREF) for the best available techniques (BAT) and the ash storage under a constant water level, but hundreds of square kilometres of surface mines remain without the corresponding technical solution.

Surface mines in Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic pose a threat to the environment, especially since hundreds of square kilometres of deposit areas are exposed to moving air, which directly carries free dust particles into the breathable layer. The micro particles of dust from the area of thousands of square kilometres of surface mines in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic are issued by the movement of air directly into the layers of breathable air to air pollutants, such as particulate pollutants causing smog situation, not only in their countries of origin, but also in Slovakia.

Coal mining needs to be disrupted and relocated, because it is 10 times more overburdened than the coal itself. When mining 34 million tons of coal per year, 340 million tons of overburden is moved, while using the dunes and open conveyor belts. When processing and transporting, the moving air generates very dangerous solid pollutants that are emitted from the overburden layer in millions of tons. This dust type can reach the share even more than 1%.

Appendix A (Table A1) presents a list of selected sources of electricity production of the Slovak power system. The installed power, production, own electricity consumption, and emissions in 2017 are updated by expert estimation for 2018. For non-emission electricity producers, a negative emission value is shown in the table, which represents the saved CO2 emissions. The biggest savings are in the nuclear power plants (about 14 million tons of CO2) and hydropower plants (4.2 million tons of CO2). Electricity production in Slovakia is associated with the annual CO2 emission of 8.2 million tons of CO2,

representing 324 kg/MWh. The utilization of the electricity in Germany and in the Czech Republic is estimated to be more than 700 kg/MWh in 2018. Electricity utilization in Poland is estimated to be about 1000 kg/MWh. With such utilizations, the development of electro mobility in power production would cause an increase in greenhouse gas production.
