Poland to award 10.5 GW of offshore wind under revised draft law

Poland has revised its offshore wind act draft and now proposes to award fixed-price contracts for difference (CfDs) to up to 5.9 GW of offshore wind projects before launching competitive tenders for the technology.

The previous version of the draft, released in January, contained a targeted volume of up to 4.6 GW for advanced offshore wind projects in what would be the first phase of a national support mechanism. In an update on Tuesday, the Polish Wind Energy Association (PSEW) said that the increase reflects the real potential of advanced-stage projects in the pipeline. Those schemes will be able to apply for the 25-year CfD support by the end of June 2021, instead of October 2022 as initially planned.

In the second phase of the initiative, Poland will hold auctions for 5 GW of capacity in two tranches of 2.5 GW each in 2025 and 2027, respectively, in order to select bidders offering the lowest price of electricity. There will be no tenders for unsubscribed capacity in 2023 and 2028 as was previously envisaged.

The new draft also includes a provision that puts the responsibility for building and financing the connection between offshore wind farms and the onshore grid to investors. This was unspecified in the original version of the draft.

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