The year 2022 was full of events that are permanently changing the conditions for the offshore wind industry. We asked industry leaders and key policy-makers for their assessment of what has been achieved in the past year and what the forecasts are for 2023. In today’s interview of the „Baltic Sea Offshore Wind – 2022 Summary & 2023 Outlook” series, we present the opinion of Jakub Budzyński, Vice President of the Management Board of the Polish Offshore Wind Energy Society.
Summary of 2022
From my perspective, the most important events for the offshore wind industry in 2022 are…
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Conducting a call for location applications as part of the so-called second round of development of the Polish offshore wind energy market
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Signing of the Marienburg Declaration by representatives of the Baltic states, including Poland, which provides for the realisation of offshore wind power generation sources with a total capacity of approximately 19600 MW by 2030
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Announcement of PKN Orlen’s decision to choose Świnoujście as the location for the installation port for the OWF projects implemented by the Company now and in the future
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Announcement of Vestas’ decision to locate production of offshore wind turbines in Poland
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Overall: Entering the decisive procurement phase for the first Polish OWF projects
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As a phenomenon: intensity of dialogue between investors and general suppliers of the Polish market with potential subcontractors for the strengthening of local content
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Intensive legislative work related to the clarification of technical and economic conditions for OWF projects in the Baltic Sea offshore area
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Announcement of the launch of localisation proceedings in the Lithuanian, Estonian and Latvian markets
Our main achievements in 2022 are the realisation of a dialogue between suppliers and sub-suppliers, as well as investors – the final recipients of production, confirmation or proof of the importance of the issue of building local content for the stable development of the Baltic offshore wind market in the current and future phases, the resumption or further development of new lines of international cooperation in the area of integration of supply chains from individual countries, e.g. with organisations from Germany, Norway, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Lithuania, the continuation or establishment of new connections.
Outlook on 2023
An important challenge for the development of offshore wind power in 2023 will be the smooth completion of siting proceedings in the Polish market, final securing of supply in the form of contracts to implement the Baltic projects on time, further construction of local supply chains based on intensive dialogue, an uninterrupted process of connection infrastructure implementation, conceptual work related to the use of offshore wind sources to produce green hydrogen, further development of energy storage technologies.
In 2023, we will immensely focus on building relations between general suppliers and the local supply chain, in the context of specific orders, contracts, building partnerships in various formats, strong promotion of the Polish offshore wind industry abroad, cooperation with relevant stakeholders in order to prepare an offer of broad support for local enterprises in the process of achieving readiness to enter and effectively compete in the offshore wind market. In addition, we will focus on the transformation of the form, formula and structure of our organisation, which we have been vocal about for several months now.
