Polenergia RES develops onshore wind energy in accordance with applicable regulations

"The development cycle for onshore wind energy projects takes many years. Preparing such a project for implementation from the moment it is initiated takes 6 to 7 years. When developing our projects, we assumed the provisions of the current law, and even earlier provisions, concerning 10H," member of Polenergia's management board Lukasz Buczynski told the teleconference.

"We are watching with interest the work of the government and the Ministry of Climate and Environment in attempting to amend this act and reduce the distance between turbines and buildings from 700 metres to 500 metres," he added.

Buczynski pointed out that, given the power and size of current wind turbines, even if the regulations stipulated a minimum distance of 500 metres, in practice the turbines would be located further away, at a distance of 600-700 metres.

"As far as our project portfolio is concerned, this will not matter. Perhaps it will matter for some individual locations," he said, when asked about the impact of the president's veto on the distance law.

However, the Polenergia representative noted that the amendment to the law on investments in renewable energy sources, vetoed on Thursday by Poland's President Karol Nawrocki, also contained promising provisions on repowering, i.e. the future replacement of wind turbines with new, more modern and efficient ones.

"We are monitoring the further progress of this amendment. We believe that the act is beneficial to society. We are counting on the success of the talks between the government and the new president," Buczynski told the conference.

When asked about the progress of onshore wind farm projects in the Polenergia group, he replied that the Badecz project is very advanced, as it already won Poland's energy market regulator URE auction in December last year, and the group is in the process of obtaining the final permits. In the case of the other projects, Polenergia expects them to be ready for construction around 2027 and later.

The group operates renewable energy projects with a capacity of 493 MW in the onshore wind energy segment and 149 MWp in the photovoltaic farm segment. In addition to the projects in operation, the group has a backlog of wind farm and photovoltaic farm projects in the medium-advanced stage (1.2 GW) and less advanced stage (1.1 GW). It is also working on the development of a portfolio of energy storage projects, with a portfolio of BESS projects with a capacity of approximately 500 MW at various stages of development.

On Thursday, President Karol Nawrocki vetoed an amendment to the act on investments in wind farms and certain other acts. The main purpose of the act is to liberalise the existing regulations on investments in onshore wind turbines. The amendment introduces 500 m as the minimum permissible distance between new wind turbines and residential buildings. Currently, it is 700 metres. The act also included provisions on freezing electricity prices until the end of the year.

pel/ ao/ nl/