Poland has revived its onshore wind energy sector with an auction awarding 1 GW of capacity.
The November auction awarded 31 contracts to 23 developers with an average price of PLN196.16/MWh, according to the country’s energy regulatory office, URE. Winning developers include E.On, EDPR, Polish developer Potegowo Winergy, state-controlled energy group PGE and Germany’s PNE.
EDPR said that it won 38 MW of capacity in the auction for its Korsze wind farm in northeast Poland. Installation is expected to take place in 2020 and the project has a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA).
Innogy won 58.2 MW of capacity for its 33 MW Zukowice wind farm in Lower Silesia and the 52.2 MW Dolice plant in Western Pomerania. The company said it expects to take final investment decisions for the two projects at the start of next year.
Many of the wind energy projects submitted for the auction were shovel-ready projects that never reached construction because of legislation enacted in Poland in 2016 that effectively blocked new wind farm development. Poland’s government announced in July that it would amend renewable energy laws to encourage new wind sector investments.
Auction prices came in at between €37 and €50/MWh. “These prices are extremely competitive,” said WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson. “They’re lower than we’ve seen in recent auctions in Germany and France.
“Prices were so low that the Polish government used only 55 per cent of the budget it had allocated for the auction. This means it can re-allocate nearly €2 billion for an additional 850 MW of capacity.”
The government has also announced plans to develop 8 GW of offshore wind energy capacity by 2035.
According to WindEurope, Poland could receive its first offshore wind power by 2025 through the 600 MW Polenergia Baltyk III project being developed by Polenergia and Equinor.
“The Polish Baltic Sea has enormous wind energy potential and it’s great to see Poland beginning to tap into this and boosting their existing offshore wind supply chain,” WindEurope Chief Policy Officer Pierre Tardieu said. “Poland should now include detailed plans on both on- and offshore wind in its National Energy and Climate Plan for 2030. The first draft is due by the end of 2018.
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