ery good natural conditions for wind power development and ambitious governmental plans are in accordance with Ernst &Young experts the primary assets increasing Poland’s attractiveness for RES investors. However, obsolescent and poorly developed power grid is a problem.

Ernst &Young experts developed a measure to score countries’ attractiveness in terms of RES development. In the global ranking Poland is rated at the 12th position. We are ahead of South Corea, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway. The top-scoring countries include China, the USA and Germany.

Poland’s assets include very good natural conditions for wind power development, in particular onshore, and ambitious governmental plans assuming that 15% of energy produced domestically by 2020 will be produced from renewable sources. These plans result in attractive conditions of governmental aid for projects related to construction of power plants basing on renewable energy sources.

“Owing to the EU funds investors in Poland may benefit from subsidies to projects related to production of energy from renewable sources. More importantly, the budget for investors exceeded PLN 1.5 billion, allowing many of the capital-intensive projects to acquire co-financing and become actual investment”, says Paweł Tynel, Director in the Ernst &Young’s Grants & Incentives Department.

Poland’s attractiveness for wind power development is confirmed by statistics. Wind power contributed to 382 MW of new generating capacity in 2010 – more than twice than in 2009. The total wind installed capacity at the end of the past year amounted to 1.1 GW, what places Poland among the 8 EU leaders in terms of wind installed capacity.

“After a substantial growth in installed capacity in 2010, market data point to further 300 MW of advanced projects. Assuming another 8 GW in the so-called development phase, we may reach the level of 13 GW by the end of 2020”, says Przemysław Krysicki, Director, Energy Group, Business Consultancy Department, Ernst & Young.

However, a significant flaw of Poland as a destination of renewable investments is obsolescent and poorly developed power grid. This is one of the reasons of lack of offshore wind power investments. The second reason underlying the fact that such investments are only planned is ecological constraints and administrative barriers.

“Development of offshore wind farms in Poland was limited due to lack of precise administrative provisions regulating construction of such installations offshore. The recent amendment to the Act on maritime areas closed the loophole, but at the same time created new, unexpected barriers for offshore investments. Moreover, such investments are much more expensive than traditional wind farms due to the need to use different technologies. Furthermore, despite limitations and bans on construction of wind farms within 12 miles offshore, one may expect active participation of ecological organisations in public consultations”, Przemysław Krysicki comments.

Poland has been ranked 26th (out of 35 classified countries) in terms of attractiveness for solar energy development.

The rank on the attractiveness list is affected by: national energy sector regulations, grid development and its adaptation to renewable requirements, availability of capital, tax credits and subsidies for development of renewables, market development perspectives, tax environment, current RES infrastructure, quality of natural resources and the scale of investment projects being implemented. Each country could achieve a score of 100. The winner, China, scored 71, whereas Poland – 47. The ranking considered development conditions for investments based on the following renewable sources: wind, solar, geothermal and biomass.

source: wnp.pl