Polish parliament approves offshore wind energy legislation

WARSAW: Poland's parliament on Wednesday passed legislation designed to spur investment into offshore wind energy, as the coal-dependent country seeks to kickstart its green energy transition.

The regulation is designed to make it easier for investors to seek public support over the next decade as they build wind farms in the Baltic Sea.

"Enabling investments worth around 130 billion zlotys will help level the negative impact of the slowdown in investment brought on by the pandemic," Kamila Tarnacka, the vice-president of the Polish Wind Energy Association said in a statement.

Poland generates most of its electricity from coal and is the only EU state which has not pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050.

But facing pressure from the European Union to reduce carbon emissions, Poland has launched incentives to encourage more investment in clean energy sources.

In July, the government signed a letter of intent with lobby groups and industry representatives to collaborate on offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea.

Poland expects to have its first wind farm in 2025. It sees the total offshore wind capacity at 10 gigawatts (GW) by 2040.

State-run PGE, which is Poland's biggest power producer, mostly from lignite, plans to build three Baltic wind farms with a total capacity of 3.5 GW. Other state-run groups are also investing.

The project is attracting foreign companies too, including Denmark's Orsted and Spain's Iberdrola.