Polenergia’s Success in RES Auction

Polenergia, the largest Polish private and vertically integrated energy group, won an auction for new large onshore wind farms and photovoltaic farms. Three projects will receive 15-year support for a part of the production volume, which means that the Group has the opportunity of increasing the capacity of the developed RES projects by additional100 MW. In the next two years, Polenergia’s installed capacity in renewable energy may be doubled from the current 296 MW up to 585 MW.

• 100 MW total capacity of RES projects that won the December auction;
• 188 GWh estimated annual production of electric energy of RES projects that won the December auction;
• 94,000 number of households potentially supplied with clean energy from projects that won the December RES auction;
• 9 projects at the stage of construction and development;

The largest project with a capacity of 45.2 MWp which received support as part of the auction system is the Strzelino Photovoltaic Farm. The investment will be located in the Pomorskie Province in the area of the Słupsk Commune and will annually generate approx. 48 GWh of clean electric energy. Another project is the Świebodzin Photovoltaic Farm which will be located in the Lubuskie Province. It will comprise 11 installations with a total capacity of 10.5 MWp. The estimated annual production will reach approx. 12 GWh. A project that also won the auction is the Grabowo Wind Farm located in the Podlasie Province in the Kolno Poviat. Its planned capacity is 44 MW, while the estimated annual production of clean electric energy is 129 GWh.

The total capacity of new Polenergia’s investments that won the December RES auction is 100 MW and the estimated annual production is 188 GWh. It corresponds to the demand for zero emission electric energy of 94,000 households. Thanks to the performance of the Strzelino Photovoltaic Farm, the Świebodzin Photovoltaic Farm and the Grabowo Wind Farm projects and generation of clean energy from renewable sources, emission of pollution on levels even reaching 177,000 tons CO₂, 167 tons SO₂, 168 tons NO_x, 59 tons CO and 11 tons of dust will be prevented.

After the final investment decision has been made, construction of the projects that won the December auction may take place in the second quarter of 2022. The construction will last until the end of 2023. The RES Act specifies clearly that the wind farm projects that win an auction are required to sell energy as part of the auction system, i.e. after receiving a permit within 33 months from the date of closing the auction and photovoltaic projects within 24 months. Furthermore, receipt of support as part of the auction system does not affect the possibility of selling energy to selected recipients. Therefore, as part of the auction, Polenergia secured a volume corresponding to approx. 35% of generation of electric energy from the new investments. The price guaranteed by the 15-year contract is within the range from PLN 139.64 MWh to PLN 278.87 MWh.