On September 28, 2016 Solivan and Enervis jointly with the German-Polish Wind Energy Club DPWEC organize a workshop (provided in English language) about the latest news on the Polish renewable law and possible consequences for the onshore wind market in Poland at 9 am at the Congress facilities, Hall B3, Room Marseille. Please register at wind@enervis.de.
The Ministry of Energy still works on further autocorrections to the revised RES Act, which entered into force on 1 July this year. In parallel, the notification of the RES support system continues.
For energy clusters and energy cooperatives, it is generally questioned by the sector which support system is an appropriate tool. Therefore, those auction baskets might stay empty for the time being until successful notification with EU Commission later in 2017. However, EU grants should be available for energy clusters at earlier moment. The idea of energy clusters for green electricity and heat supply gained broad political support and will provide most likely to further decentralisation of the Polish energy system.
Hybrid installations with an amount of produced electricity exceeding the capacity factor of over 40% (3,504 MWh/MW installed capacity/year) gain political support. We except onshore wind to team up with biogas and solid biomass installations to achieve the threshold per MW installed capacity. Due to project finance requirements contracting investment models may fit best for onshore wind to team up with biogas or biomass installations. For further details please do not hesitate to contact us.
Furthermore, it is still under discussion whether the local biomass obligation will apply just to agricultural biomass, also to forest biomass or whether certified biomass generally should be limited only to imports from EU.
By mid of September 2016 finally the volume for the 2016 auctions are expected to be published. The Ministry of Energy has already finished and published a draft regulation in August, however, the consultations with other ministries have not been finalised yet. Due to the fact that the notification of the auction system will most likely still be pending when 2016 auctions will take place, those auctions should be understood as test auctions for installations with up to 1 MW installed capacity with a total volume not exceeding 150 million Euro. According to current draft the total volume for 15 years amounts to 4.1 TWh, whereas a maximum of 1.57 TWh will be dedicated for “other new installations” not exceeding the capacity factor of over 40 percent (3,504 MWh/MW installed capacity/year). So, this basket equates to 109 GWh/year, or approximately one hundred 1 MWp ground-mounted PV farms. The other basket was originally dedicated to existing agricultural biogas installations, however, due to increasing prices for newly implemented blue certificates which currently amount to PLN 280/MWh this basket will most likely be decreased as for the time being for existing biogas installations the certificate system is more attractive. Additionally, an auction for existing installations with capacity factor exceeding 40 percent might be organized, so that e.g. smaller hydro power plants are able to change the support system.
PGE, the largest Polish state owned utility with 40 percent market share, published an update of its strategy earlier this week. Usually, the strategy of PGE is followed by Poland’s energy policy – the Polish energy policy shall be updated later this year. Firstly, it is planned to continue implementation of the nuclear power plant project, however no commissioning before 2035 is planned. So, generally the project is postponed, however R&D is ongoing. Furthermore, it is under evaluation to continue projects consisting of new lignite mines and lignite power plants – but under the condition that climate policy will play a less important role and emission targets will mitigate, what is unlikely. This approach seems to be rather strategic in case European Union collapses. However, no commissioning before 2035 is planned. Furthermore, PGE and Enea, the second largest state owned utility start to work on projects of coal gasification/IGCC power plants. It seems, that the assumptions of the Ministry of Energy for capacity market mechanism published in July this year has been proven as unrealistic. The main market segments for capacity markets will require a reaction time of 15/60 minutes, respectively, which technically excludes coal firing power plants, whereas the assumptions of the Ministry of Energy based on 4/8 hours reaction time. The segment of new CHP plants shall be outsourced and realized with an external partner, which provides an indication about the financial situation of PGE. Furthermore, by 2025 the first offshore wind farms finally totalling to 1 GW shall be commissioned, and PGE forecasts that by 2030 at least 25 percent of its power plant fleet will consist of RES installations. And finally, PGE expects to take part at coming auctions for onshore wind farms to keep its position as market leader. So, in other words: in 2017 and 2018 we will see most likely auctions for onshore wind.
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Języki: niemiecki (ojczysty), angielski i polski
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