PV In Poland

General

According to the Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources the target for the share of energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy in the year 2020 for Poland is 15% (in the year 2005 the share was 7.2%).

Renewable electricity: PV

There are only a few on-grid installations in Poland with the total capacity of 45 kWp. Year 2009 and 2010 did not bring any uptake on Polish PV market. Currently the total installed power amounts to 1.8 MWp, mostly off-grid. The major obstacle is the lack of feed in tariffs for PV. This incentive is supposed to boost the PV sector in Poland. Lack of FIT for PV keeps Poland, the biggest country of the region, far behind its neighbours.

PV electricity is supported by green certificates - the certificates represent property rights and as such are traded. Green certificates have an average value of about 0.27 PLN/kWh (0.0678 €/kWh) in addition to the market electricity price 0,197 PLN/kWh (0.0495 €/kWh). The prices are not fixed – each time they are negotiated. PV investors in Poland are encouraged with several investment subsidies (EU cohesion fund), preferential loans. The National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOSiGW) with the Voivodeship Funds for Environmental Protection (WFOOE) are the major instruments of financing RES projects on the state-level. Polish PV investors are eligible also for grants financed through the Green Investment Scheme (GIS). Sixteen Provincial Funds for Environmental Protection and Water Management award softloans for small and medium PV investments.

Energy generation license is required regardless of the power installed (previously required only > 50 MW).

In Poland the production of electricity from PVs is not profitable, however the equipment production is doing quite well. BP Solar has signed an agreement with Jabil Circuit from Kwidzyn to manufacture BP Solar modules for the European market in Jabil’s plant in Poland. The deal calls for an initial capacity of 45 MW in 2009, with the opportunity for expansion as demand increases. BP, which is increasingly outsourcing its production, joins SunPower and Day4 Energy as customers of Jabil's PV module contract. For Jabil, a former manufacturer of TV sets the PVs contribute to 1/3 of turnout. AIT the PV modules producer selles its products to Germany or Scandinavia – in Tarnów a factory of 40 MW/a production capacity was built. Halukabel from Radziejowice Wells the PV cables to Czech Rp. And Germany. Vetro Polska solar modules exported to Italy and Belgium.

Future programme changes expected

NREAP estimated that total contribution from PV energy in Poland will reach 2 MWp in 2015 and meet the binding target of 3 MWp in 2020.

The future are not only small dispersed systems (so far the biggest installed capacity is 80 kWp by Bydgoszcz) but also big centralized systems. By 2013 the first big PV plant is planned in the former airport of Gryzliny (nearby Olsztyn) of 1 MWe capacity (1 hectare). Another one Wierzchosławice in the South of Poland where the solar radiation is the highest in POland (1,0 MWp), which will be finaced from the regional funds.

The Ministry of Economy is working on the change of the support system, however no separate feed-in tariff for this technology is expected. There will be subsidies for mounting and erection of PV modules.

Sources

www.pv-nms.net/

Institute for Renewable Energy, Poland.

National Renewable Energy Action Plan for Poland, Warsaw 2010 URL: http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/transparency_platform/doc/national_renewable_energy_action_plan_poland_en.pdf

http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/refsys/pdf/PV-Report2009.pdf

http://www.czrea.org/files/pdf_en/studie/PV-NMS-2009.pdf

http://www.pv-polska.pl/Eng/PVCNews.php?m=10&d=10

http://www.elektro.info.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6460:dynamiczny-rozwoj-fotowoltaiki-ale-nie-w-polsce&catid=1:aktualnoci&Itemid=100016

http://www.gramwzielone.pl/zielone/artykul/Polskie-firmy-na-rynku-fotowoltaicznym

http://www.ure.gov.pl/uremapoze/mapa.html

http://www.muratorplus.pl/technika/instalacje-elektryczne/przyszloscia-fotowoltaiki-sa-systemy-rozproszone_68085.html

http://www.powiat-olsztynski.pl/t2/index.php?page=news1023

http://www.wierzchoslawice.pl/redwag/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=589

Last update: March 2011

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