There have been three bids to construct a new 1000 MW coal-fired unit at the OstroÅ‚Ä™ka power plant in north-east Poland, which the country’s energy minister says will be the last coal-fired unit to be built in Poland. The unit will be owned and operated by Polish state-owned utilities Energa and Enea, who want it operating by 2023. Although it is to be the last newly built coal-fired unit, the Polish government’s plan is to keep the country largely coal reliant (and thereby largely energy self-sufficient) up until mid-century, reducing the current 80% share of coal in the energy sector to 50% by 2050. The three bids came from China Power Engineering Consulting Group (4.85 billion zloty/€1.16 billion/US$1.39 billion), GE/Alstom Power Systems (6.23 billion zloty/€1.49 billion/US$1.79 billion), and a consortium of Polimex-Mostostal and Rafako (9.59 billion zloty/€2.30 billion/US$2.75 billion), which compare interestingly to Energa and Enea’s initial budget of 6 billion zloty and the revised budget of 4.8 billion zloty. A decision is now to be made, possibly after some finances are arranged by the two companies.