The President of Poland has signed the new Renewable Energy Sources Act (RES Act) that will replace the current quota system by an auctions-based scheme that provides highest financial support for predictable RES such biomass and biogas. The legislative move allows the Polish support scheme for renewables to comply with the European Commission’s Energy and Environmental State Aid Guidelines for the period 2014-2020 (EEAG).
Obligation to purchase the electricity produced by RES facilities will apply for installations with capacity not exceeding 500 kW. Separate auctions will be held for installations with capacity below and above 1 MW and will be divided in seven distinct groups of facilities:
- installations with power generation exceeding 3,504 MWh/MW/year (work load above 40%), regardless the technology;
- installations with power generation exceeding 3,504 MWh/MW/year (work load above 40%) and emitting no more than 100 kg of CO2/MWh/year, regardless of the technology;
- installations using biodegradable industrial waste and municipal solid waste for power generation;
- members of an energy cluster;
- members of an energy cooperative;
- using only agricultural biogas to generate energy;
- others.
The maximum volume and value of electricity generated by RES installations of auctions, as well as the reference (maximum) price for each type of technology will be determined in a secondary law. The first auction is expected to be held by the end of 2016.
In the meantime, the President also signed the Wind Turbines Act that introduces several regulations on wind turbines such as real estate tax or a minimum distance between the wind turbine and households or mixed-use buildings of at least equal to ten-times the total height of the wind turbine.
Both regulations entered into effect on 1 July 2016.
Do you want to become an expert on renewable energies auctions?
Discover our very detailed and regularly updated RES auctions database with worldwide coverage and a technical focus backed by academic research.
With our renewable energies auctions service you will be able to monitor auctions at a global level. Its (expanding) scope notably includes all major G20 countries and offers an especially fine tracking on Europe and South America.