EC Kraków 1 is a 446 MW coal power station in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland. It is operated by Polska Grupa Energetyczna SA. Based on reported annual generation of 1,504 GWh, it can supply roughly 430k homes. It ranks #51 of 246 Poland power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1986, it is around 40 years old — long-established. Its annual emissions of 1,554,173 t CO₂/yr (EU ETS verified (EUTL 2023)) are equivalent to about 362k cars driven for a year. In context, coal supplies about 50.4% of Poland's electricity; the national grid averages 589 gCO₂/kWh (31.5% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1019051.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and fuel fields on this page are source-record values from the upstream open dataset. They are useful for identification and ranking, but they have not been upgraded to a 2026 registry/GEM-location verified value.
capacity: WRI Global Power Plant Database source-record (legacy); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 446 MW, EC Kraków 1 is well above the median coal plant in Poland (166 MW). Coal plants burn pulverised coal to raise high-pressure steam for a turbine; they run as baseload but are the most carbon-intensive mainstream source and the first targeted for retirement or efficiency retrofits.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
This facility's annual emissions are roughly equivalent to:
Equivalencies via US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies; emissions per EU ETS verified (EUTL 2023) (measured for US EPA/EU ETS, modelled for Climate TRACE).
Annual generation (GWh), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Polska Grupa Energetyczna SA. All plants by this company →
This coal plant burns coal to raise high-pressure steam that spins a turbine-generator. It sits in a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 50.1°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 43% above the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 76/100 — this site sits in the top third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a mild atmospheric environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C2 — Low), with humidity / wetness the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #32 largest coal power plant of 93 in Poland by capacity.
Poland has 93 coal power plants in this dataset, together about 47,959 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 50.0535, 20.0061 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
EC Kraków 1 is a 446 MW source-record coal power plant in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland, commissioned in 1986.
EC Kraków 1 generates about 1,504 GWh of electricity per year.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 429,657 homes.
EC Kraków 1 is operated by Polska Grupa Energetyczna SA.
EC Kraków 1 has measured emissions of about 1,554,173 tonnes of CO₂ per year (EU ETS verified (EUTL 2023)).
