Equinor has begun commercial operations at a 53MW solar plant in Poland.
Lipno, located in the Wielkopolskie province in central Poland, was developed by and will be operated by Equinor subsidiary Wento.
Equinor acquired Wento and its 1.6GW pipeline of solar projects in 2021, which now operates three PV plants and one wind park in Poland with a total capacity of 200MW.
“Wento’s journey showcases how we leverage our investments in local development companies to build a material and profitable onshore renewables business in select markets,” said Equinor’s senior vice president for onshore and markets within renewables Anders Bade.
Equinor’s energy trading house Danske Commodities has signed a balancing agreement with the Lipno solar plant and will be responsible for commercialising the produced power in the Polish power market.
Lipno is expected to yield returns in line with prior guidance for renewables in Equinor.
Danske Commodities provides route-to-market for Wento’s assets in operation, building upon almost 15 years of power trading experience in Poland.
“We have developed a distinct business model that allows us to efficiently scale our onshore renewables portfolio and create value uplift from power trading,” said Bade.
Since the acquisition, Wento has built on its project pipeline, effectively doubling it to over 3GW of opportunities in various stages of maturity.
The pipeline has been diversified beyond power generation to also include battery storage, which adds flexibility and enhances value creation potential.
“Poland is actively developing renewable energy to increase domestic power capacity and enhance energy security,” said Wento chief executive Wojciech Cetnarsk.
“For Wento and Equinor, this represents an exciting opportunity to be a leading player in a growing renewable energy market.”
Earlier this year, Wento won the Polish Capacity Market Auction with four battery storage projects totalling about 400MW.