The Polish Senate has unanimously passed Poland’s offshore wind act without amendments, completing the legislative process for the bill in the country’s parliament.
The act will now go to Poland’s president Andrzej Duda to be signed into law and will come into force 14 days after the signing in late January or early February.
It regulates the method of obtaining public support for developers interested in building offshore wind farms off Poland, with 5.9GW to be backed in an initial stage.
Support for the first phase will be granted by way of an administrative decision by the president of the country’s Energy Regulatory Office (URE).
Applications for the first stage should be completed no later than the 31 March, with the URE expected to announce successful projects by the end of the first half of 2021.
A second phase will see two 2.5GW auctions in 2025 and 2027.
Polish Wind Energy Association (PWEA) vice president Kamila Tarnacka said: “This is a historic moment and a key act not only for our energy, mostly based on fossil fuels, but also for our economy.
“The regulations contained in the offshore act, which is the basis for the development of wind farms in the Polish part of the Baltic Sea, will support the process of transformation of Poland towards low-emission for the next decades.
“Launching investments worth around PLN130bn will help to reduce the negative effects of the slowdown caused by the pandemic.
“Because it is not only a direct injection of cash for the economy, but also tax revenues to the central budget and municipal coffers, tens of thousands of new jobs and a chance to build a strong industry around the sector, [and] revitalisation of Polish shipyards and ports.”
PWEA added that the adopting the offshore wind act does not end the work to ensure that electricity flows from the Baltic Sea to the country.
It said relevant executive acts need to be completed on regulations on a maximum price for offshore wind, technical requirements for offshore installations, regulations on the scope of expertise and plans to meet maritime safety requirements and on the impact assessment of installations on state defence systems, as well as the rules for the possible purchase of the network connecting offshore with farms with the land by the transmission system operator.
Tarnacka said: “These regulations should be treated as a priority. In the optimal scenario, they should enter into force in February so that investors can include them in applications for support to the URE.”