Polish miners train for wind power jobs as coal employment falls

Some Polish coal miners are training for work in the wind power industry as Poland slowly shifts away from coal and toward cleaner energy sources.

Grzegorz Witek, a miner from Silesia, travelled with seven other miners to Gorzyca in western Poland for a training programme run by EDF Power Solutions Poland. The programme is intended to help coal miners move into wind industry jobs. Witek still works in coal mining and has spent 14 years underground.

Before climbing real wind turbine towers, participants completed three weeks of training at the Vulcan centre in Szczecin, in north-western Poland. The training covered maintenance and safety, including how to evacuate a tower.

Instructor Michal Rak said miners are suited to the work because they are used to difficult conditions and understand risk. He said that after working as deep as a kilometre underground, being high above the ground does not usually unsettle them.

Patryk Paja, a 29-year-old miner who has spent three years in the mines, said he sees wind power as the future because Poland’s mining sector is declining. In the mine where he works, tunnels reach 1,300 metres below the surface.

Coal still accounts for more than half of Poland’s electricity production, the highest share in the European Union, according to the source. Coal’s share has fallen from about 90 percent in 2008 to nearly 50 percent today. Solar and wind now produce more than 30 percent of Poland’s electricity. The government is aiming for that share to reach 50 percent as early as 2030 and as much as 69 percent in 2040. Poland’s first nuclear power plant is expected to start operating in 2036.

The coal sector is also under financial pressure. The source said mining companies are losing money despite government support that totalled 2.1 billion euros, or $2.4 billion, in 2024. It said extracting a tonne of coal now costs nearly twice as much as importing it, and domestic production no longer fully meets Poland’s needs.

Mining employment has fallen sharply. The sector employed nearly 400,000 people at the end of the communist era, compared with about 70,000 now. The government projects that around 300,000 jobs linked to the energy transition will be created by 2030.

Alicja Chilinska-Zawadzka, president of EDF Power Solutions Poland, said hiring needs in the wind sector would grow quickly in the coming years. EDF Power Solutions Poland, a subsidiary of the French group EDF, has funded and organised retraining programmes for three years. About 50 miners have taken part, and all of them have received job offers.

Mariusz Tomalik, a spokesperson for the Mine Restructuring Company, said interest in the programme has increased. He said the first round had five miners for 10 places, while later rounds had four times as many applicants as available slots.

Marek Mikolajczyk, 41, worked in mines for 10 years before retraining. He has worked on wind turbines for a year and a half. He said the job is more pleasant, lighter and less dangerous, with higher pay, a better working atmosphere and opportunities to travel. He said the main drawback is spending long periods away from family during assignments, speaking from Kosovo where he was helping install a wind farm.

Paja said he does not expect to stay in mining until retirement and wants to move into a sector with a future.