Winds of change in offshore. The President signed the amendment to the Wind Farm Act

On Tuesday, President Karol Nawrocki signed an amendment to the Act on promoting energy from offshore wind farms. Its main goal is to improve the implementation of offshore energy projects, as well as the broadly understood development of the renewable energy sector.

The amendment to the Act on the promotion of electricity generation in offshore wind farms and certain other acts provides, among others, for: the possibility of conducting an intervention auction in 2026 in the event that the first auction for offshore wind farms planned for December 2025 fails due to the lack of a sufficient number of certificates of admission to the auction or if it is not resolved due to the submission of fewer than three valid offers.

According to the adopted provisions, offshore projects that have already received support under the first, non-auction phase of offshore wind energy development will have the opportunity to submit additional capacity to the auction. For some of these projects, the capacity indicated in the location decision and the issued connection conditions may be higher than the capacity for which support was granted under the first phase. A solution was proposed that would enable the construction of additional power in a given area and submitting it to auction. The limit for this additional capacity for all areas is 200 MW.

The amendment introduced the possibility of settling a negative balance using the maximum price expressed in whole or in part in euro – both for projects from the first phase of support and the second, auction phase.

The current provisions of the Offshore Act provide that the support granted to an auction participant is subject to annual indexation with the inflation rate from the previous year. The project proposes that the level of indexation be limited from above by the medium-term inflation target of the Monetary Policy Council. If inflation in a given year exceeds this target, indexation will only take place up to the target level.

According to the amendment, farms will be able to use common power output, as long as measurement systems make it possible to determine which farm produces how much energy. More than one OWF is expected to share the same offshore power station, power output devices or their components. This approach will optimize the costs associated with power output, which in the case of some projects may have a decisive impact on the feasibility of their implementation.

It is also possible to correct the position of the foundation for an offshore wind turbine or offshore transformer station by no more than 50 m.

The amendment also provides for the preparation of a potential map for individual types of renewable energy sources by the Minister of Climate, as well as allowing the designation of areas for accelerated development of individual renewable energy sources within areas with identified potential, provided that they have a local development plan allowing the construction of renewable energy sources.

As a rule, the Act will enter into force 14 days after its announcement. (PAP)

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