Polish lawmakers amend wind energy act amid calls for shorter distancing

The Sejm, the lower house of Poland's parliament, rejected on Thursday the Senate's proposal to reduce to 500 metres the distance of wind turbines from housing, thus amending the law and ignoring sector and public appeals for a shorter setback.

The amended law, providing for a minimum 700 metres distance of wind turbines from residential buildings will now go for approval to the president, Sejm documents show. The location of onshore farms will be determined by local spatial development plans and an environmental impact assessment, taking into account the impact of noise emissions on the environment.

The Sejm was supposed to unblock wind investments in Poland by revising the 10H act for locating wind farms at a distance 10 times the height of the turbines. However, it rejected the 500 metre-distance proposal of the government, a revision widely approved by the sector and the local authorities.

The Senate, the upper house, returned the bill to the Sejm, arguing that the longer distance will block the development of renewable energy in the country and put at risk its energy independence in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

The Sejm paid no heed to appeals of sector investors, experts and employers, for a regulatory framework, which will support Polish onshore wind in achieving the country's climate and energy security goals.

Poland's Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers cited analyses showing that increasing the distance will lead to a reduction in installed capacity by 60% to 85%, which will have a grave impact on Polish exports to be produced using chiefly green energy by 2026.

Big multinationals operating in Poland, such as Google, Ikea, Amazon and Mercedes Benz, had also called on the prime minister and the Polish parliament to withdraw the 700-metre amendment. They pointed out that they see a huge potential for their operations in Poland but without green energy, the country's economy is at risk of losing its competitiveness.

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