Poland's government is set to hold auctions for up to 2.5 GW of onshore wind energy this year after its lower house of parliament approved revisions to the country’s Renewables Act.
The revisions include plans to extend the deadlines for developers to secure interconnection agreements for their projects, as well as rules to strengthen the Guarantees of Origin (GO) scheme.
The plans are due to be approved by the Polish Senate at the end of this month. The Polish Wind Energy Association (PWEA) said it expects the auction to be held in November or December 2019, for onshore wind installations over 1 MW in size.
WindEurope Chief Policy Officer Pierre Tardieu said: “It’s great news that Poland will have a 2.5 GW onshore wind auction this year. This builds on their last auction in November 2018 which showed that onshore wind is very competitive on price: it’s now cheaper than new coal and nuclear.
“The Polish government clearly sees an important role for both onshore and offshore wind in meeting their rising energy demand. But the stringent set-back distance law on wind turbines will need fixing to allow for future growth beyond this year’s auction.”
In Poland’s November 2018 auction, 23 developers secured projects, with low bids of PLN 157.80/MWh (€36/53/MWh).
