Bełchatów Power Station

The Bełchatów Power Station is a large 5,053  power station situated near  in, Poland. It is the largest power station in Europe, and one of  fossil fuel power stations in the world. It produces 27-28 TWh of electricity per year, or 20% of the total power generation in Poland. The power station is owned and operated by PGE Elektrownia Bełchatów S.A., a subsidiary of.

In 2011 a new 858 MW unit was commissioned and the total capacity of the power has risen to 5,053 MW. The new unit has an efficiency rating of approximately 42%, which is contributing to reduction of both fuel consumption and emissions compared to the existing units. The unit was built by. Alstom has also carried out the modernization of the low pressure parts in all 12 turbines and on 8 April 2009, PGE and Alstom signed a contract to modernize the unit 6. Modernization of another units is planned or ongoing, thus total installed capacity may reach 5,474 MW as of 2015.

The station's exhaust is expelled through two 300 m tall chimneys, among free-standing structures..

Carbon dioxide emissions
In 2007, the ranked the power station as Europe's 11th most relatively polluting power station due to carbon dioxide emissions of 1.09  per  of energy produced, and the highest absolute emitter, with 30.1 million tonnes of CO2 per year. In July 2009, the facility was titled as the biggest carbon polluter in the European Union by the Sandbag Climate Campaign, a London based non-profit organization. The report stated that the facility produced 30,862,792 tonnes of CO2 in 2008 and after commissioning the new unit the whole generating capacity will have grown by 20%.

To reduce CO2 emissions the company plans to introduce carbon capture and storage technology. On 8 December 2008, PGE and Alstom signed a memorandum of understanding according to which Alstom will design and construct by mid 2011 a pilot carbon capture plant at Unit 12. The larger carbon capture plant will be integrated with the new 858 MW unit by 2015. The project will be supported by the European Commission with the €180 million allocation from the European Energy Programme for Recovery.

Its operator expects the plant to be in operation for at least 30 more years. There are plans to reduce use of coal and lignite for fuel to 38% by 2035. Dependence on plants like Elektrownia Belchatow inhibits Poland from fulfilling the ambitious goals for reduction in carbon dioxide emissions that they have signed on to including the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), a cap-and-trade scheme.