The mitigation of climate change poses a major challenge to the legal framework which aims to stimulate the development of renewable energy sources. The European Union’s direction for the use of renewable energy is distributed generation and an increased use of by-products and organic waste, especially in the production of next-generation biofuels. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the production potential of straw in Poland and the possibility of its use for energy purposes, including a forecast for 2030, on the assumption that the management of this resource is in accordance with the provisions of the Polish Code for Good Agriculture Practice. In Poland, in the years 1999–2018, the average annual surplus of straw harvested over agricultural consumption equalled 12.5 million tons (4.2 Mtoe). Its largest surpluses were in the Dolnośląskie, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Lubelskie, Wielkopolskie, and Zachodniopomorskie voivodeships (NUTS2). Based on the developed panel models, forecasts for straw surpluses in Poland are presented in three perspectives: realistic, pessimistic, and optimistic. The forecasts show regional differentiation until 2030. Each of the three perspectives indicate a slow increase in these surpluses, and depending on the adopted version, it will range from 10.6% to 21.9%.

Heat pump technology offers a path towards reducing the use of fossil fuels to heat space, providing energy bill savings and reducing air pollution and GHG emissions. The choice of heating method is based on costs; hence, this study examines the gains from operating heat pump systems in public buildings as well as alternative systems using electricity, LPG, and heating oil. The study focuses on the Ruda-Huta municipality in Poland that, as is common in rural areas, lacks access to a district heating system or piped gas. The empirical analysis includes heat pump installations in eight municipal buildings. The study found that the use of ground source heat pumps proved competitive with existing heating systems in terms of payback time. Calculations for three heating energy source scenarios, i.e., electricity, LPG, and heating oil, used the Simple Pay Back Time (SPBT) and the Levelized Cost of Heat (LCOH) methods and the average prices of the three energy types for the period 2012–2021. The payback period calculations disregarded the EU subsidies for heating systems utilizing renewable energy sources (RES). The payback time for electric, LPG, and heating oil were, respectively, 6.7–7.8 years, 4.1–6.1 years, and 6.7–6.9 years. Much larger spreads favoring heat pumps were calculated using the LCOH, and the costs in the case of electric heating were nearly three times higher and doubled when using heating oil and LPG. The gains from investing in heat pump systems have been offset by the increase in electricity, LPH, and heating oil prices, which have been predicted to continue to increase in the foreseeable future supporting the use of heat pumps in rural areas lacking access to, for example, district heating systems. The switch to heat pumps reduced local air pollution by eliminating the burning of fossil fuels to heat space in public buildings.

Renewable energy (RE) sources are often locally available and have the potential to lessen the rural dependence on the national power grid, reducing disruptions in power supplies and the heavy dependence on coal combustion. Poland faces an EU mandate of a 15% share of renewables in energy generation by 2020. However, the installations intended to supply several types of RE encountered local opposition, forcing a cancellation of the planned investments and stressing a need for understanding rural residents’ attitudes towards RE in general. Using survey data, this paper examines the perception of RE importance among rural residents in eastern Poland. The specified empirical relationship includes the sociodemographic and economic characteristics of residents. Perceptions of the links between health and specific sources of environmental pollution and actions demonstrating energy-saving behavior serve as explanatory variables. The performance of the estimated logit equation was rigorously tested. The probability of attaching importance to RE by rural residents increases most if a respondent displayed an energy-saving behavior, has certain demographic characteristics, and links health to environmental pollution caused by coal combustion. The graphic depiction of the effects of selected variables succinctly communicates possible future programs aimed at strengthening the rural population support of RE.

In Poland, rapeseed production has been the fastest growing branch of plant production since 2000. Rapeseed yields have increased 2.5 times in the last 20 years. The main reason for this trend was the implementation of obligations resulting from legal acts by Member States relating to increasing the share of RES in the structure of primary energy production, and in particular relating to the share of biofuels in fuels used in transport. In Poland in the years 2010–2020, about 1.0–1.6 million tonnes of rape seeds were used for this purpose annually. Due to the fact that biofuel production competes for raw materials with the food economy, at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, many representatives of various circles intensified their voices, calling for withdrawal from the policy supporting the biofuel sector, which may have resulted in a decrease in oilseed plant cultivation areas. As a result of the research conducted here, it was determined that the place of oilseed rape in the sowing structure will be taken by rye, triticale and, on good soils, by wheat. Compared to rape, their production is characterised by lower income per 1 ha; in the years 2013–2019, these differences amounted to: wheat—8 EUR, triticale—102.3 EUR, and rye—168 EUR. This situation will deteriorate the value cereal cultivation sites and will result in a decrease in their yields. On the basis of the conducted research, the estimated value of rape as a forecrop for wheat, triticale, and rye was, respectively: 103.7; 64.6 and 46.7 EUR. An additional advantage of oilseed rape is that it is an excellent bee resource and is classified as a commodity crop, i.e., one from which significant amounts of honey can be obtained, with a net value of EUR 55 per hectare. In addition, in many agricultural holdings, as a result of forecasted changes in plant production, there will be an accumulation of field work during the harvest period, which will also affect the worse use of machinery and storage areas. The consequence of increasing the area under which cereal crops and their supply can grow may be the decline in production profitability and thus the income situation of farms, but this will be assessed at the next stage of research.