The fourth annual COAL-GEN Europe 2012 officially opened on Tuesday 14 February.

The opening address featured keynote speakers:

• Piotr Kisiel, Energy Department, Ministry of Economy, Poland 
• Pierre Dechamps, Advisor for Energy and Climate Change, European Commission, Belgium
• Milton Caitlin, Chief Executive, World Coal Association, UK

Throughout the three day conference, over 550 experts in coal-fired power generation from over 36 countries shared their knowledge on of cutting edge technologies, services and best practices.

While the conference was taking place in Warsaw, agreements were being signed for new hard coal-fired power units. The consortium of construction companies Polimex-Mostostal (leader), Mostostal Warszawa and boiler producer Rafako signed an agreement on the 16 February with power plant PGE Elektrownia Opole to build two hard coal-fired power units with a combined capacity of 1800 MW.