Investments in personnel preparation and competence development are the key to take advantage of the opportunity to build a strong offshore wind energy sector in Poland – said in commentary for BalticWind.EU Agnieszka Rodak, CEO of Rumia Invest Park. The commentary was originally published in “BalticWind.EU Quarterly Country Report Poland Q1 2022″.

The Pomeranian Offshore Wind Energy Competence Centre is one of the flagship projects in the Pomeranian region, which is to contribute to the preparation of the labour market for the development of offshore wind farms. It assumes the creation of an educational and training centre as well as a laboratory research and implementation base. The Centre will provide practical education for youth, and training for adults tailored to labour market needs. A distinctive feature of the project is the focus on secondary technical schools in professions dedicated to renewable energy.

Construction, operation, and maintenance of wind farms in Polish waters of the Baltic Sea will be carried out largely using the potential of entities located in the Pomeranian region. That includes Pomeranian seaports, which will have important functions during the installation and operation of wind farms. We see a great opportunity for accelerated development of the region due to these investments. Such development should become exemplary from the point of view of combining economic growth, development of local business potential, and achievement of climate targets. According to the examples of such regions as Danish, German, Dutch, or British, where investments in offshore wind farms are realised – they significantly increased investment attractiveness to appeal to companies participating in the supply chain. The specific character of the executed projects should also positively influence the increase of investment in research, development, and implementation of innovations.

To exploit these opportunities, it will be necessary to prepare the Pomeranian labour market and to support education and vocational training at various levels. One of the key conditions will be institutional strengthening through projects such as the Pomeranian Offshore Wind Energy Competence Centre. The aim is to develop cooperation between the existing units, both at the secondary and academic level – which is consistently pursued by Rumia Invest Park supported by, among others, the Marshal’s Office of Pomorskie Voivodeship…

The full article you can read on BalticWind.EU Quarterly Country Report Poland Q1 2022.