The Polish Energy Regulatory Authority announced on November 21st that wind farm developer wpd has won the contract for implementing four wind projects with a total output of 102.5 MW in Poland. The projects, Jarocin Kożmin (17 turbines with 42.5 MW), Słupca Kołaczkowo (15 turbines with 45 MW), Jarocin Wschód (2 turbines with 5 MW) and Krotoszyn (4 turbines with 10 MW) are to be constructed in Central Poland by the end of 2020. They have been developed ready to build with the result that construction can start once the finance has been settled and the final order for the turbines has been placed.

“After the end of the Green Certificate system in Poland in 2015, we had to wait three years for the major auction announced for Renewable Energies”, says Dr. Hartmut Brösamle, Member of the Board at wpd AG. “wpd’s basic strategy of entering markets early and not giving up in tough times, has once again proved correct. We always believed in the Polish market and we kept our own local team. By implementing the Polish projects, we are opening up the European market still further and systematically pursuing our global strategy of expansion. Poland will again become one of the most exciting markets in Europe in the medium term”, in Brösamle’s estimation.

Until 2015, the Polish market was considered to be one of the most dynamic markets in Europe. By 2015, almost 6 GW of onshore wind turbines had been built. With the change of government at the end of 2015, the energy policy also changed. Greater emphasis was placed again on coal-fired power stations, making conditions for the expansion of Renewable Energies more difficult. With the current tender, the country is now once again opening up to the global developments of the energy market and responding to the EU’s binding regulations to reduce CO2 emissions.

Since 2012, wpd has had a presence in Poland in the shape of wpd Polska sp. z o. o. based in Posen with a project pipeline of around 250 MW, and so far it has implemented around 20 MW.

About wpd
wpd develops and operates onshore and offshore wind farms, and is actively engaged in 18 countries around the world; the head office is in Bremen. In the last 20 years, the company has realised projects with 2,180 wind turbines and an output of 4,400 MW in total. wpd is currently planning projects in the order of 8,050 MW onshore and over 5,300 MW offshore around the world. www.wpd.de