Poland's government has published a draft of a much-anticipated law designed to promote offshore wind energy.

The Ministry of Energy says that the draft law is the result of “intensive work and consultations with many partners” and is now ready for “further legislative work”. It proposes a two-stage development of the industry to enable the most advanced projects to move forward to construction in the next few years.

In the first stage, construction-ready offshore wind projects will be permitted by the Energy Regulatory Office between 2020 and 2022. In a second phase, remaining projects will be allowed to compete in energy auctions for a contracts for difference (CFD) support mechanism.

Poland has no offshore wind energy capacity but a number of developers – including PGE, Orsted, Equinor and RWE are active in project development.

In a separate development, Poland’s government has announced plans to boost investment in the onshore wind sector by revising the 10H regulation that sets minimum distances between wind turbines and buildings.

The 10H regulation means that 99 per cent of Poland’s land territory is excluded from new project development, according to PSEW, Poland’s Wind Energy Association.

PSEW says that the regulation could stay in place and amended to allow local authorities to exclude designated areas from the rule.