Within three years, we will free Prague from dependence on Russian gas, the Pirates promise
The director of the municipality was given the task of checking the possibility of reducing the heating temperature in the municipal buildings below the current 22 degrees. Photo: archive
If successful in the autumn elections, the Prague Pirates want to push for the capital city to be independent of Russian gas by 2025. To help with this, it has a set of measures, such as the construction of biogas stations, the use of heat from waste water for heating, photovoltaics or energy savings in public buildings. Party representatives told reporters. According to them, the intention should concern both private and public buildings.
“By 2025, we would like to be able to call Prague gas-independent from the Russian regime,” said Daniel Mazur, president of the Prague Pirates organization.
The current mayor of Prague and a member of the Pirates, Zdeněk Hřib, added that the city has already been trying to do this in recent years, but now efforts will need to be increased in view of Russian aggression in Ukraine.
According to the party, reducing the dependence on Russian gas and fossil fuels in general can help, for example, by reducing the energy demand of public buildings and installing photovoltaic panels on their roofs.
The city has already started with this next year, and the Pirates would like to push into the budget for the municipality to give a billion crowns in subsidies to parts of the city intended specifically for solar panels on the roofs of schools and kindergartens.
According to the ideas of the Pirates, the novelty should be the building of roof structures over the parking lot, which would provide shading in addition to space for photovoltaics. For this, the party would like to give another billion crowns from the city budget, which, according to Hřib, would expand the building of panels over 5,000 parking spaces.
From the point of view of heating, new resources are to be provided by the already built biogas station at the Central Wastewater Treatment Plant. Another is to be created in Chrást outside Prague by expanding an existing facility, the purchase of which was approved by the city councilors in June.
Hřib added that he instructed the director of the municipality to check the possibility of lowering the heating temperature in the municipal buildings below the current 22 degrees.
The planned construction in the hitherto unused area of Bubna-Zátory, as well as parts of Dejvice and Veleslavín, could obtain heat with the help of heat pumps from waste water.
According to Viktor Mahrik, the chairman of the pirate club of representatives, a study is already being prepared for this, which should be approved by the new city management after the elections. Prague could use money from the European modernization fund to build technologies.
The management of the metropolis has already announced that the city will no longer support gas boilers in the so-called boiler subsidies, but only heat pumps or photovoltaics.
Municipal elections will be held on September 23 and 24. In Prague, elections will be held for the all-Prague council and for the councils of city districts, of which there are a total of 57. In addition, voters will choose the senate in three Prague districts.
The last elections in 2018 in Prague were won by ODS, which won 14 representative seats. The Pirates, Praha Sobě and the United Forces for Prague (TOP 09, STAN, KDU-ČSL) won 13 each. ANO won 12 mandates from the elections. After the elections, the Pirates, Praha Sobě and the United Forces agreed on a coalition, while the victorious ODS and ANO ended up in the opposition.
Due to the expected reduction in gas supplies from Russia, the countries of the European Union have currently agreed on rules for limiting the consumption of this raw material for the upcoming heating season.
After the first part of the meeting of the Union energy ministers, the Czech Presidency informed about it Council of the EU. The ministers approved the revised proposal of the European Commission, which provides for voluntary savings of 15 percent.