At the site of the current CSA quarry near Most, after the end of mining, an area for housing, greenhouses, a solar park, industrial zones and a large lake where fish will be kept is planned. Part of the area of over 5,000 hectares will be left to nature. Mining is expected to end around 2024. Out of a total of 1,200 employees, some will move to the Vršany quarry and others will work on new projects at CSA, said Petr Lenc, director of mining companies of the Sev.en Energy group.
The complete transformation of the area is planned by the group in the Green Mine project, with which it is applying for support from the Fair Transformation Fund. It submitted applications for roughly CZK 2.5 billion to the project pool. In addition to the mining company of the town and municipality in the vicinity, the Ústí nad Labem Region, the state represented by the Ústí Fuel Combine, architects and scientists and academics from the Czech University of Agriculture, for example, are in the working group dealing with the transformation of the landscape affected by surface brown coal mining. According to Sev.en Energy, if the projects are implemented, approximately 1,000 jobs will be created.
There are about three years left until the last ton of coal is mined. The start of the so-called hydric reclamation begins immediately afterwards, the pit for impregnation is gradually being prepared by sealing the bottom in places where mining has ended. According to Lenka, how big the lake will be in the end is now being addressed. “Currently we have plans for a lake, which should be at a height of 180 meters above sea level, and should have an area of about 670 hectares (roughly double the nearby Lake Most). The climate is gradually changing and we all know that the height of 180 meters above sea level the sea at a non-flowing lake is unsustainable, so the optimal solution is now being sought,” said Lenc.
The lake will be used partly for recreation, similarly to other lakes created after lignite mining, ie Milada near Ústí nad Labem, Medard near Sokolov and Most, but it will mainly serve energy. Solar panels will be placed on the water surface. “Thanks to the technology, we don’t have to wait for the whole lake to be filled, but they can be placed on the surface from a certain height, they just have to be anchored so that they don’t float freely on the water,” said the director. “Solar parks or the construction of greenhouses for growing vegetables do not require demanding preparation, so it can be started in about two years,” he added.
The construction of the so-called aquaponic farm is planned, which includes the breeding and production of fish, year-round cultivation of vegetables in a greenhouse and energy production. The five-hectare farm is estimated to produce 90 hectares of fields and 1,000 hectares of ponds per year.
The group wants to build a plant in the locality for the processing of larger energy products, waste that is generated by burning coal and has been deposited in dumps for decades. “They can be a source of valuable raw materials, such as lithium. The materials can be used in construction or, for example, in the preparation of polymers for use in 3D printing,” said Lenc. There are also plans to produce hydrogen and use it on site, for example as a fuel or for propulsion in vehicles.
The plan envisages the creation of three localities for housing, one of which could be below Horní Jiřetín, where the limits of coal mining are limited. These were set by the government in 1991 and confirmed in 2015. The Coal Commission recommended the end of brown coal in the Czech Republic in 2038.
A large area in the CSA site is gradually being reclaimed. Part of it grows spontaneously, and according to scientists, these areas are very valuable. “Very rare species live here, we even discovered a species that has been considered extinct in the Czech Republic for 70 years,” said Markéta Hendrychová from the Czech University of Agriculture. “Landfills rich in these habitats are declining, so we are glad that part of the landscape could be left in the wild,” she said.
In the future, the foothills of the Ore Mountains could also be a place for a pumped storage hydropower plant. Its output could be over 500 megawatts, the cost is estimated at 25 billion crowns. “But this is no longer a matter that one investor could afford on his own, it must be in agreement with others and with the transmission system operator ČEPS,” said Lenc.
Source: Sev.en Energy and CTK
