Non-financial report 2020
Non-financial report 2020
PGE is committed to bird protection. To this end, it takes specific measures to increase their safety as well as to enhance the possibility of maintaining and reintroducing various bird species.
The peregrine falcon is one of the rarest bird species, which became practically extinct in Poland twenty years ago. Currently, there are 50 pairs of falcons in Poland and they are under strict species protection. PGE Group has been actively working to restore the peregrine falcon population in Poland for 18 years.
Over the years, falcons have taken a liking to PGE’s chimneys. In 2020, a total of 18 chicks hatched and were ringed in six nests located on the premises of PGE branches. Since 2003, 83 young falcons have fledged from nests located on PGE Group installations, which accounts for 17.3 per cent of all peregrine falcons born in Poland since 2000 (479 nestlings in total).
As part of activities related to the restoration of the peregrine falcon, PGE cooperates with the “Falcon” Wild Animals Association. Within the scope of this cooperation, cameras were placed on the falcon nesting boxes located on the premises of the cogeneration plants in Gdynia, Toruń and Lublin. Thanks to this, birds and their activities can be watched online at www.peregrinus.pl.
First peregrine falcon egg at PGE EC Gdynia nest, 6 March 2020
Source: PGE EC archive.
Peregrine falcon nest on chimney of Gdynia heat and power plant.
Source: PGE EC archive.
Besides falcons, the premises of the Dolna Odra complex are also inhabited by bank swallows, which nest in the disused section 4 of furnace waste dump, as well as kestrels, whose nests are located on the power plant chimney. As their habitat, swallows have adapted the slopes created as a result of ash-slag removal. Their protection consists mainly in protecting young birds, which often fall out of their nests during the first flights.
PGE is also involved in the protection of storks which, due to the location of their nests on electric poles, are particularly exposed to the risk of being electrocuted. For years, metal platforms have been erected for storks on poles above power lines and their nests have been moved to these platforms. This prevents direct contact between storks and power lines, which significantly reduces the risk of electrocution, especially for young birds. Currently, there are more than 26,500 such platforms in the company’s areas of operation. In order to protect birds, the power infrastructure of PGE Dystrybucja is additionally equipped with special protection devices such as platforms, deterrents and coloured balls suspended on power lines.
The company also cooperates with associations and foundations whose aims include bird protection. These organisations include the following:
Such works are performed from mid-October to the end of February, when storks are in Africa for the autumn-winter period. The months from March to October are the stork protection season.
PGE Dystrybucja.
Source: PGE Dystrybucja archive.
Bird protection also applies to PGE wind farms located in the areas constituting passage routes for selected species. The turbines of the Lotnisko wind farm and the neighbouring Wojciechowo wind farm are periodically shut down to allow a safe passage of cranes to their feeding grounds and back.
Additionally, an innovative system developed by a Polish company to warn and protect birds from collisions with turbine blades was tested at the Lotnisko Wind Farm in 2020.
The pilot study confirmed that the system successfully detected birds, assigned them to groups and tracked their flight paths and directions. The next stage provides for tests of the system with respect to an automatic selection of an action to minimise the risk of collision: a light or sound signal, and eventually a turbine shut-down. The second stage of the pilot study will last until August 2021.