On July 30, the Polish Council of Ministers adopted a resolution on an installation terminal for offshore wind farms, submitted by the Minister of Infrastructure. The government wants to create the main port facilities to support offshore wind farms at the Port of Gdynia.
In the “Polish Order”, the economic program of the current ruling party, renewable energy sources are an important aspect. The program includes, among others investments in wind farms. According to the document, the government will create appropriate port facilities to support offshore wind farms at the Port of Gdynia. The installation terminal is to ensure the effective development of offshore wind energy in the Baltic Sea in the Polish exclusive economic zone.
According to the government, the technical conditions of Polish seaports were taken into account when selecting the location of the installation terminal for offshore wind farms. An important aspect was also their location, which is crucial from the point of view of the economic efficiency of investment processes in offshore wind farm installations in the Baltic Sea.
There may be a few problems
The Port of Gdynia is located the closest to the future offshore wind farms planned as part of the first stage of development, the so-called Polish offshore wind project. Additionally, the Port of Gdynia is already used for transshipment of many structural elements of wind farms. According to the adopted assumptions, it is to be a strictly installation facility for offshore farms in the Baltic Sea.
According to reports from Polish media, such as Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, the construction of the installation port in Gdynia may be associated with several restrictions. The government decided to build an internal port instead of an external one, which was originally proposed by the Ministry of Climate and Environment in the second resolution that appeared earlier. According to the internal navigational analysis prepared for the Port of Gdynia, the entrance to the internal port may be too small, which may make it difficult to navigate the ships. Secondly, ships with wind turbines elements can make the handling of containers difficult. The internal port would be built on the site of the BCT container terminal.
