Poland’s heavy reliance on coal, which in 2017 provided 80% of the country’s electricity has hampered the nation’s progress in achieving the EU’s climate neutrality goals. In 2020, Poland failed to meet the 15% target of electricity supplied from renewable sources as the country reported only 10.75%.
Despite failing to meet the goals, Poland did make some strides in the right direction as their installed capacity reached 9.475G with wind accounting for 65% of the capacity. In 2021, the Polish government announced plans to limit energy production from coal and focus on renewables, with plans to increase offshore wind to 11% (from 5.9%) and increase solar development to 7.8GW by 2030.
1) RWE (Germany)
The German energy group continues to add to their already impressive 50GW portfolio by looking to invest up to €50bn by 2030 including wind, solar, and hydrogen projects.
One of these includes the development of a 16.8MW wind farm located in Rozdrazew in western Poland. The 16.8MW site is the sixteenth wind farm RWE have developed in the country, taking their total installed capacity to 410MW.
RWE aims to continue their expansion in the country with the development of its 48MW Dolice and 12MW Lech Nowy Staw 3 sites. The German group are also looking to gain a foothold in the Polish solar market with a project pipeline in the excess of 80MW of projects to be developed in 2022 and 2023.
2) EDF Renewables (France)
The Paris-based energy group have become industry experts in wind development and are responsible for numerous projects across Europe. In 2013, EDF commissioned its first Polish wind farm with their 48MW Linowo project.
The French group continues to avail of the favorable wind energy conditions that are on offer in Poland as they completed their third project in the country in March 2022. The 24MW Gorzyca wind farm is located in Radowek and provides enough electricity to supply 40,000 households.
The project was the first of its kind to be developed using the new network code in Poland, using the type D power generation module. The project represents a cornerstone in Poland’s plans to accelerate the growth of clean energy projects and strive toward a net-zero future.
3) OX2 (Sweden)
Since their inception in 2004, OX2 have been fully committed to developing fully sustainable energy solutions and in doing so has established their position as one of Europe’s leading developers of wind energy. To date, the Swedish group have developed and sold over 3GW of wind-powered assets.
OX2 have a diverse portfolio of projects located across Europe in countries such as Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Romania, and Greece. In May 2022, the group announced the sale of their 63MW Wysoka farm to the Ingka group which is the investment arm of IKEA.
Poland has become a fruitful location for the Swedish group as similarly in June 2021, the group sold their 45MW Huszlew site to Octopus Renewables. To date, the group have developed four Polish wind projects in the space of a year and OX2 will continue to provide technical and commercial management of the site when it completes construction in 2023.
Image Source Unsplash 27.07.2022
