Poland Overhauling Renewable Energy Support

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- Poland has set out a new renewable energy subsidy scheme that it hopes will help the country move from its current position of being almost totally reliant on coal-fired power plants for its electricity.

The country, which generates about 90% of electricity from heavy, CO2 emitting coal-fired plants, is now hoping to promote more investment in solar and offshore wind with new subsidies or Feed in Tariffs (FiTs). However, the higher subsidies for offshore and solar means that subsides for biomass and onshore wind will be cut. The proposed changes, known as the Renewable Energy Sources Act, has been put forward by Poland's deputy minister, Mieczyslaw Kasprzak, who hopes that the new bill will be in place by next January. The new bill also includes changes that will make it easier to connect renewable energy projects to the electricity grid.

Previous versions of the bill have already been attacked by the wind sector, fearing lower subsidies, and large power plant owners who have spent millions of euro converting coal-fired units to being able to burn biomass material also.

Deputy Minister Kasprzak defended the cut in support for biomass by explaining that importing biomass is costing far too much and the price for biomass keeps rising. "We're cutting support for biomass," he told the media. "Importing biomass costs us €245 million ($301 million) annually. We can't work that way." Poland's consumption of biomass has trebled since 2006.

The bill has already been criticised by the country's leading energy company, the state-owned Polska Grupa Energetyczna SA (PGE) (Warsaw, Poland), which runs most of the coal-fired plants. PGE's Chief Executive, Krzysztof Kilian, said that the new bill would make the co-burning of biomass less profitable and claimed that "the Economy Ministry has ignored the voice of the power sector in its draft bill on renewable energy".

This time around, the wind sector seemed to accept the latest changes. In a statement the Polish Wind energy Association (PWEA) stated: "Although some areas need to be improved, there is no doubt that the wind energy sector can look calmly into the future".

The FiT for solar projects above 100-kilowatts has been set at $0.334/kWh and contract terms will run for 15 years. The overall amount available to the scheme will be limited by a budget and the Polish government will review the scheme every three years.

Poland is under pressure from the European Union (E.U.) to raise its renewable energy share to more than 15% by 2020. The country is aiming for that but has said it will veto any plans by the E.U. to raise the carbon emissions targets across Europe. Some countries have called on the E.U. to raise the targets to 25% or even 30%. For additional information see May 14, 2012, article - Poland Blocks Tougher CO2 Targets.

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