Poland Allocates 1.3 GW of Solar and Wind Capacity

Poland’s Energy Regulatory Office (ERO) has allocated a capacity of 870 MW of solar and 460 MW of wind in its latest auction.
The regulatory office auctioned 570 MW of solar projects of over 1 MW, while all the 460 MW capacity for wind is for projects over 1 MW. The tender discovered a minimum price of PLN 207.85 (~$50.93)/MWh for solar projects and PLN 139.64 (~$34.22)/MWh for wind projects.
With a total value of over PLN 3 billion (~$735.06 million), the projects will generate 13.9 TWh of electricity.
The tender for solar and wind projects less than 1 MW attracted 401 bids. Of this, 309 bidders won the auction. The Energy Regulatory Office allocated 300 MW of solar capacity for projects less than 1 MW. It reserved over PLN 2.5 billion (~$612.49 million) to procure 2.7 TWh of power and awarded contracts for PLN 677 million (~$165.86 million).
The lowest bid for the solar project stood at PLN 219 (~$53.65)/MWh, while the highest bid was PLN 278.87 (~$69)/MWh.
ERO also opened a tender for geothermal, bioenergy, and hydropower projects of up to 1 MW. However, it received bids for only hydropower projects. It had allocated around PLN 70.2 million (~$17.20 million) to procure 143 GWh of power. Bids were awarded for 76.5 GWh of energy with a value of around PLN 49 million (~$12 million).
In June, Poland allocated 2.5 GW of renewable capacity in auctions.
Last year, Poland auctioned 1.7 GW of renewables capacity in its largest renewable energy auction.
Coal is the dominant energy source in Poland, but the country has taken giant strides in augmenting renewables capacity over the last decade. The country had an installed solar photovoltaic capacity of 3.9 GW at the end of 2020.
According to the Institute for Renewable Energy of Poland, the country’s installed power in photovoltaics in 2025 may reach 15 GW. The next few years would see more capacity installed in the utility-scale segment instead of the distributed generation segment.