Poland’s Parliament has approved a new law intended to facilitate the construction of new onshore wind turbines in the country. According to the new regulation, wind turbines will be able to be built at a minimum distance of 700 meters from homes. The newly approved law has been watered-down compared to its original target, as the Polish Government initially wanted to reduce the minimum distance to 500 meters instead of 700. Under the current ruling, which has hindered investment in new turbines in Poland since 2016, a wind turbine should be located at a minimum distance of 10 times its height away from residential buildings.
The new law also introduces minimum distances between new wind turbines and electricity transmission lines and lifts the ban on the construction of residential buildings near already existing wind turbines. The new legislation also provides that the investor will offer at least 10% of the installed wind park capacity to residents of the municipality where the park is built.
Relaxing rules on wind farm investment is among the milestones that Poland has to implement to unlock funds from the EU’s National Reconstruction Plan.
Poland’s yearly onshore wind capacity additions went from 647 MW added in 2016 to only +12 MW in 2017 and +7 MW in 2018. The new capacities have recovered since then, with +71 MW in 2019, +430 MW in 2020 and +660 MW in 2021. Poland’s onshore wind capacity stood at 6.9 GW at the end of 2021.
Interested in Global Energy Research?
Enerdata's premium online information service provides up-to-date market reports on 110+ countries. The reports include valuable market data and analysis as well as a daily newsfeed, curated by our energy analysts, on the oil, gas, coal and power markets.
This user-friendly tool gives you the essentials about the domestic markets of your concern, including market structure, organisation, actors, projects and business perspectives.