PKN considers building offshore wind farm

Poland’s state-run oil refiner PKN Orlen is considering building an offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea, the company said on Thursday.

Most of the electricity generated in Poland comes from coal. Strict regulations introduced by the Law and Justice (PiS) government in the past two years have stopped new investment in wind farms.

But earlier in March the government adopted an amendment to a law on renewable sources of energy, which the wind farm industry hopes might make new projects easier.

Government comments in the past few weeks have also indicated Poland would welcome offshore projects.

“Embarking on a wind farm project is in line with our strategic objectives and plans for Poland’s transition to a low-carbon economy. We hope the tender attracts strong interest from domestic firms,” a director at PKN was quoted as saying in a statement.

PKN Orlen said it had announced a tender to determine the options for preparing and implementing a project involving the construction of offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea with a total capacity of 1.2 gigawatts.

Poland has no offshore wind farms at the moment. The two most advanced projects at the Baltic Sea belong to state-run power group PGE and private Polenergia, controlled by the billionaire Kulczyk family. Both have not yet received construction approvals though.