Maciej Matczak

Offshore wind energy (OWE) constitutes a significant instrument for implementing the European Union’s energy transition policy. However, the wind farms require substantial resources, including labour. Poland’s offshore wind farm development programme is presently entering a critical stage; consequently, the precise determination of labour demand has become essential for ensuring the effective implementation of national energy transition objectives. The objective of the study is to estimate the overall labour requirements associated with the Polish OWE program. The lack of extensive domestic experience in the sector, the analysis draws upon best practices established in other countries. A model schedule for the implementation of the OWE program in Poland was also determined. The findings include an estimation of labour demand across the entire life cycle of offshore wind farms. This study offers guidance on both quantitative and qualitative workforce needs—specifically in relation to education and skills development—thereby supporting the public sector in preparing qualified personnel for the national economy, with particular emphasis on the energy sector.

The European Union’s energy transition framework presents significant challenges for the maritime sector, requiring technical, organizational, and market-based compliance measures. The FuelEU Maritime Regulation (FuelEU) introduces flexible mechanisms such as banking, borrowing, and pooling that broaden compliance options for shipowners. This study examines the role of pooling in European shipping, focusing on its operational models, enabling conditions, and economic implications. Pool formation demands extensive information exchange and effective coordination, creating a need for specialized intermediaries and supporting the emergence of a market in which pooling prices are shaped by supply and demand. The research employs a qualitative methodology combining stakeholder and exploratory market analysis, assessment of regulatory and market drivers, case studies, and comparative analysis, complemented by expert interviews and a targeted survey. The findings highlight pooling as a pivotal compliance instrument, particularly as a fallback option during the reporting period, and show that it currently represents the most cost-efficient means of achieving FuelEU compliance. Intermediary service providers, especially digital platforms, play a central role by facilitating coordination, improving transparency, and reducing compliance costs. The study further identifies key factors influencing shipowners’ costs and revenues in pools, emphasizing the critical importance of alternative fuel availability and prices.

Road freight transport is the key driver of the European economy and society; thus, distortion of its operation would have negative influence on growth and well-being. For that reason, implementation of European policies, including transport decarbonization, should be comprehensively evaluated from an environmental, social and economic perspective. In that case, introduction of electric trucks will create a mutual impact on the market and on haulage companies. The main research problem is to assess the future impact of decarbonization on the international road freight transport market structure on the supply side and the competitiveness of companies operating there. Today, a number of small and medium companies, to a great extent from Eastern Europe, render transportation services, creating a competitive structure with high flexibility, accessibility and low prices. Shifting towards electric trucks, with significantly higher upfront costs, will redefine the market structure, eliminating the small carriers and activating horizontal integration. The key objective of this research is to identify the main factors and challenges related to electric truck implementation and define crucial areas of its impact on future market structure. The research shows that the improvement of environmental performance requires low- or zero-emission trucks, where the battery technology is a leading solution. Thus, fleet renewal needs additional financial support from the public side. Different measures are available in European countries, so the level of support is not equal from a competitiveness perspective. Battery truck selling, as well as sustainable strategies, refer mostly to huge transport companies. On the other hand, the case of Polish truckers shows that the economic viability of SMEs is poor; thus, the introduction of BET would be beyond its reach. The research findings could be treated as recommendations for market regulators (EC), where the tempo of implementation, as well as availability of public support programs, should be rethinking. As a result, the costs of the transition will be covered by citizens, as customers, in the prices of products and transport service, or as taxpayers, in public support programs, mainly consumed by large market stakeholders.

Proper operation of software requires increasingly larger memory resources and efficient IT equipment. Therefore, methods and technologies are being sought to optimize IT structures. One of the directions is virtualization and switching to cloud. These are methods of running multiple virtual computers or servers on a single hardware platform that supports multiple IT systems and applications. The implementation of these technologies means number of benefits, but also costs, including the need to purchase appropriate hardware, software and then maintain the system. Thus, a business decision to implement virtualization requires comprehensive supporting tools testing its financial and economical effectiveness. As an artifact of the research, a prototype of a calculator was developed to evaluate the effectiveness of virtualization, which can be measured using the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and ROI (Return On Investment) indicators. To achieve the research goal, the DSR (Design Science Research) method was used.