RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ITS IMPACT ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL AREAS

The aim of the study is to present the issues of renewable energy sources and their importance in the development of rural areas. In Poland, renewable sources of energy, out of which 71 % are biomass-based, are created in rural areas. The desk research method of an analysis was used in the paper. The analysis of the subject literature and data from the GUS, URE and EUROSTAT databases have rendered it possible to establish the facts, verify the data and present the results obtained. The research has shown that renewable energy sources are a prospective direction of energy development of rural areas, which is mainly due to the availability and inexhaustibility of natural energy carriers. At present, the attitude towards RES has changed because of the lack of support for RES or unfavourable conditions for certain sectors of RES, to name but a few. While it is true that RES not only allow to secure the energy needs of the region and bring about many positive social and economic phenomena, meeting the 15 % requirement in 2020 might be problematic and it might prove necessary to purchase energy from neighbouring countries.