Poland's climate ministry re-proposes support for biogas and assistance for wind turbines
Poland's Ministry of Climate and Environment is renewing provisions implementing auctions for biomethane production facilities with a capacity exceeding 1 MW; it is also proposing improvements to the investment process for onshore wind farms, this time without provisions on minimum distances from buildings, according to a draft published on the government legislation centre RCL's website.
The head of the Ministry of Climate and Environment wants the draft to be submitted to the standing committee of the Council of Ministers.
The draft act on renewable energy sources and certain other acts implements auction support for installations producing biomethane with a capacity of over 1 MW - biomethane producers who feed this fuel into the gas network will be eligible for support.
"The proposed mechanism will support the production of approximately 300 million cubic metres (approximately 3,100 GWh) of biomethane per year, which will require the construction of approximately 50 installations - in the case of a plant with an average installed capacity of 2.8 MW (converted to electricity equivalent)," the draft explanation stated.
"The energy market regulator URE will be responsible for announcing, conducting and awarding auctions – on terms analogous to those currently in place under the auction system for electricity generation from renewable energy sources," it added.
Support will be provided in the form of a contract for difference based on bids submitted in an auction (preceded by pre-selection) for reference prices assigned to RES installations in two power ranges.
"Support will be available for a maximum period of 20 years (as is currently the case with support for biomethane); producers covered by the support are required to start producing biomethane within 4 years of the auction being settled," it was noted.
The proposed solutions are to be subject to the European Commission's state aid notification procedure.
In addition, in order to expand the possibilities for the use of biogas, agricultural biogas and biomethane in places other than where they are produced, the draft proposes to facilitate the construction of a direct gas pipeline through which these biogases will be supplied.
The draft authors assume that the location of wind farms will be determined in accordance with the provisions of the planning act; they aim at making the method of determining their minimum distance from the highest voltage power grid more flexible.
In mid-November, the government's list of tasks included an entry on a draft bill by the Ministry of Climate and Environment, which was supposed to, among other things, support the installation of biogas and biomethane and to streamline investment processes in onshore wind farms. Support for biogas and the liberalisation of requirements for wind turbines were provided for in a bill vetoed by the president in August.
After President Karol Nawrocki vetoed the so-called wind turbine bill in August, which also contained provisions on biomethane support, the Ministry of Climate and Environment announced a new project introducing, among other things, an auction support system for installations producing biomethane with an installed electrical capacity of more than 1 MW and facilitations for a direct gas pipeline through which biogas, agricultural biogas or biomethane will be supplied.
In addition, the ministry announced improvements to investment processes for onshore wind farms, although no specific solutions in this regard were mentioned in the government's list of tasks. The bill vetoed by the president provided, among other things, for a reduction to 500 metres in the minimum distance between wind farms and residential buildings.
jz/ han/ tom/
