At the Baltic Sea Offshore Wind Energy Summit 2025 in Gdansk, Giles Dickson, CEO of Wind Europe, praised Poland’s progress in offshore wind energy development. He stressed the need for a strategic approach to creating a robust domestic supply chain and Poland’s potential to become a key European manufacturing hub for offshore wind energy components, subject to adequate investment and political support.
The Baltic Sea Offshore Wind Energy Summit 2025 in Gdansk was a key event for offshore wind energy development in the Baltic Sea region. It emphasised regional coordination while addressing key aspects including energy security, infrastructure development, technological advances and workforce development.
Dickson highlighted Poland’s significant progress in offshore wind energy, including the start of construction of the first offshore wind farm and progress towards the ambitious targets of “6 GW offshore wind by 2030, 18 GW by 2040“. He also praised the development of the Polish offshore wind supply chain. He stated: “This is indeed the best strategy we have seen for the development of offshore wind capacity across Europe. This strategy requires a total investment of ‘€5 billion’, with the potential to create jobs and attract additional investment to northern Poland.” He urged the Polish government to consider supporting this plan through public financial support, pointing to the flexibility of the European Union in offering state aid for such industrial investments.
Dickson also addressed the challenges of the European Commission’s suggested changes to the state aid guidelines, in particular the 75% on-site manufacturing rule. He explained that this rule, mandating factories electrifying their processes to source 75% of their electricity from on-site generation facilities, would make power purchase agreements (PPAs) with large wind farms more difficult, thus hindering industrial electrification. Dickson urged the Polish government and other EU member states to advocate for the removal of this rule during the consultation with the European Commission. Dickson argued: “Please tell the Commission that this 75% rule must disappear. It is a barrier to power purchase agreements. It is a barrier to the electrification of industry”.
Giles Dickson and Krzysztof Bulski (Managing Editor of BalticWind.EU) opening the Baltic Wind Awards Ceremony
Dickson stressed the importance of strengthening European clean technology supply chains and supporting energy-intensive industries in their electrification and decarbonisation efforts. He referred to the European Investment Bank’s new guarantee facility to reduce the risk for wind farm operators entering into PPAs with industrial customers.
In conclusion, Dickson stressed that Poland plays a key role in Europe’s energy transition through the development of the offshore wind sector and the building of a competitive supply chain. He called for continued cooperation, strategic investment and conducive policies to fully realise the potential of offshore wind energy in Poland and the entire Baltic Sea region.
The Baltic Sea Offshore Wind Energy Summit 2025 demonstrated the importance of collaboration, innovation and strategic planning in the pursuit of a sustainable energy future. The event was made possible thanks to key support from the ‘Leading Summit Partners’: PGE Baltica and Baltic Power, who played a fundamental role in the delivery of this important meeting. Invaluable contributions were also made by the ‘Official Summit Partners’: Ignitis Renewables, OW Ocean Wind, the Royal Danish Embassy, Rumia Invest Park and the Danish Energy Agency.
The next edition of the Baltic Sea Offshore Wind Summit 2025 will take place in Brussels in October, and in March 2026 the summit will again visit Gdansk.
