On 21 January 2022, Poland’s Ministry of Infrastructure published three announcements regarding new offshore wind energy concessions. Three additional offshore areas will soon be available to next operators. Some companies have communicated that they will not participate in the concession proceedings, while others have already confirmed their participation.

Vice-Minister of Infrastructure, Marek Gróbarczyk, announced on Twitter that the ministry has launched another procedure for granting offshore wind concessions in Polish waters of the Baltic Sea.

The first announcement (No. 1/2022/MFW) is for an area of approx. 142.7 km2, the second (2/2022/MFW) – – 118.4 km2, the third (3/2022/MFW) – 150.27 km2. The authority competent to issue the permit is the minister in charge of maritime economy. Applications for the location can be submitted by interested entities within 60 days from the publication of announcements in the Public Information Bulletin of the Ministry of Infrastructure.

We should ecall that on 1 December 2021, the long-awaited decree of the Minister of Infrastructure, on the evaluation of applications in the adjudication procedure establishing the criteria by which applications for permits to erect artificial islands will be evaluated, was published. There has been much controversy surrounding the regulation. Requirements appeared that may be difficult or impossible to meet by foreign investors who have knowledge and extensive experience in the execution of projects of a similar scale and scope, making it de facto impossible for them to participate in the determination procedure, thus excluding them from the process of investing in offshore wind energy in Poland – Lewiatan Confederation indicated in its position on the draft regulation.

Investors with obtained permits will be able to participate in future auctions for offshore wind farms, the second round of offshore wind development in Poland. The President of the Energy Regulatory Office will organize auctions for offshore wind farms in 2025 and 2027, according to the Offshore Act.

Polenergia will not take part in proceedings for new offshore concessions, Polenergia’s Head of  Offshore Wind Department, Maciej Stryjecki, has announced. It’s a Polish, privately owned energy company that saw huge potential in offshore wind in 2010. In 2018, it entered into cooperation with Equinor assuming joint implementation of the Baltic II and Baltic III offshore wind farm projects. In December 2019, it signed a cooperation agreement for the Baltic I offshore wind farm project. The total capacity of the projects developed by Polenergia together with Norway’s Equinor is 3 GW. Polenergia and its partner, Equinor, have signed a letter of intent to cooperate on offshore wind energy development in Poland (Polish Offshore Wind Sector Deal).

Polish oil company PKN Orlen, on the other hand, has submitted three applications for permits for offshore wind farm sites, according to Jarosław Dybowski, Executive Director of the company’s Energy Department. Together with its partner Northland Power, the Polish company is implementing the Baltic Power project with a capacity of up to 1.2 GW, which will ultimately supply up to one million households with clean electricity. The new filed applications were announced by PKN Orlen CEO, Daniel Obajtek, on Twitter.

On 2 February 2021, The Council of Ministers approved the Energy Policy of Poland until 2040 (PEP2040), which is the vision for Poland’s energy transition strategy. The offshore wind farm proposals will be evaluated through its prism. PEP2040 projects, that the installed capacity of offshore wind farms by 2030 will be 5.9 GW and up to 11 GW in 2040. However, it can be assumed that due to technological advances, particularly in the context of offshore wind turbine capacity, the installed capacity in these years will be higher.