From coal mines to wind turbines, the wind is changing for Polish miners

Along with seven other miners, he is participating in Gorzyca (west) in a training course by EDF Power Solutions Poland for the retraining of coal miners in wind power, a transition illustrating the ongoing energy revolution.

"It's the space, the feeling of freedom (...), it's the wind blowing," Grzegorz, amazed, told AFP, back at the foot of the turbine, having spent fourteen years at the bottom of the mine.

"At home, it's always dark, there's no outside world, no sun. Here, we work in the open air," he points out before joking: "With the wind turbines, we're moving to a higher level!"

Before climbing real pylons, the participants underwent three weeks of training at the Vulcan center in Szczecin, a Baltic port city. Maintenance, safety, working at heights, and first aid: the program is intensive.

For instructor Michal Rak, the miners possess valuable assets. Accustomed to extreme environments, they approach this new profession with seriousness. "After working a kilometer underground, finding themselves hundreds of meters above the ground doesn't really faze them," he observes. But above all, aware of the risks, they "don't take things lightly."

The wind is the future

For Patryk Paja, 29 years old and with three years of mining experience, the wind is clearly the future.

"The mining sector is dying out in Poland and you have to change something in your life," he says, harnessed before taking the elevator that leads to the top of a turbine. In the mine where he works, the tunnels descend to 1.300 meters.

"This is the energy transition. We are switching to green energy, no more coal," he summarizes.

Around Gorzyca, wind turbines now dot the horizon. An increasingly common sight in a country long dependent on coal.

For decades, this resource has been one of Poland's economic and cultural pillars. But the model is faltering. Mining companies are accumulating losses despite state aid, which allocated €2,1 billion to the sector in 2024.

Extracting a ton of coal today costs almost twice as much as importing it, and domestic production no longer fully covers the country's needs.

Coal is also declining in the energy mix. Its share in electricity production has fallen from around 90% in 2008 to nearly 50% today.

Sun and wind produce more than 30% of the electricity, with the government aiming for 50% by 2030 and up to 69% by 2040. And the first nuclear power plant is expected to come online in 2036.

Exponential growth

This transformation is accompanied by a continuous decline in the mining workforce. The sector, which employed nearly 400.000 people at the end of the communist era, now has only 70.000.

Meanwhile, the government is counting on the creation of around 300.000 jobs related to the energy transition by 2030. A huge challenge for companies seeking experienced workers.

"The need for recruitment in the wind energy sector will grow exponentially in the coming years," warns Alicja Chilinska-Zawadzka, president of EDF Power Solutions Poland.

For the past three years, the subsidiary of the French group has been financing and organizing these retraining programs. Around fifty minors have already participated and all have received a job offer.

"Some have already taken up their duties, others are preparing to do so," she says.

Interest in the program remains strong. "In the first edition, there were five miners for ten places. Ultimately, over the years, we have had four times more applicants than places," emphasizes Mariusz Tomalik, spokesperson for the Mining Restructuring Company (SRK).

At 41 years old, with ten years spent in the mine, Marek Mikolajczyk is pleased to have taken the plunge. For the past year and a half, he has been working in the turbines.

"The work is more enjoyable, lighter, and less dangerous," he explains. Added to this are a higher salary, a better atmosphere, and the opportunity to travel.

One downside: "the long separations from family during missions," he says from Kosovo, where he is involved in the installation of a wind farm.

Patryk Paja, for his part, hopes to soon follow the same path. "I certainly won't make it to retirement in the mine, so I might as well enter a sector with a future," he says before adding with a smile: "instead of going down, we'll go up. It will be a different kind of adrenaline rush."