SSE Renewables, part of UK FTSE-listed SSE Plc, has bid for the allocation of development rights for a 954MW offshore wind at site 60.E.4 in the Baltic Sea in Poland. Located 85 km from shore in water depths up to 58 meters, this is the deepest area of the eleven specified in Appendix 2 of the Law on Promoting Electricity Generation in Offshore Wind Farms. If the license is granted, SSE Renewables and ACCIONA Energía will jointly develop the project, which will produce enough capacity to power 1.5 million homes upon completion.
“We’ve focused on applying only for the 60.E.4 site because we believe we are uniquely positioned to unlock its full potential, given its high complexity and our proven experience in developing offshore wind projects in similar conditions,” said Simon Redfern, SSE Renewables Bid Director. ”SSE Renewables and ACCIONA Energía are committed to building a local supply chain through the creation of a supply chain fund if we are successful and are confident of achieving over 50% Polish content over the lifetime of the project.”
The development of the project is expected to generate 9,000 local jobs and an investment of PLN 12 BN in local value. The partnership has also announced that the project would enable a PLN 170 million fund to directly invest into Polish supply chain companies to support the development of the project and the local content share should the bid be successful.
“Our goal is to maximize the development and prosperity of the supply chain”, said Andrzej Konarowski, ACCIONA Energía’s Country Director for Poland. “We have a long-established presence in Poland, where we have been operating onshore wind farms for over 15 years. Now we want to take a step further and contribute to the deployment of the offshore wind industry and explore the potential to integrate it with other renewable technologies, such as green hydrogen and storage solutions.”
SSE Renewables and ACCIONA Energía have signed the Sectoral Agreement for Offshore Wind Energy Development in Poland, and are also members of the Pomeranian Platform for Offshore Wind Energy Development in the Baltic. They have already signed collaboration agreements for the development of their project with a number of Polish companies such as Mostostal Warszawa, as well as the Maritime University of Szczecin and the Offshore Wind Energy Centre at Gdynia Maritime University.
SSE Renewables’ bid is the Secondary Application under the competitive process that the Polish government opened to allocate seabed permits, and it follows the company’s Primary Application submitted earlier this year. The outcome of the process is expected in early 2023, which would ensure the project would be eligible to enter the Contract for Difference (CfD) auctions starting in 2025 and to generate first power in 2029.
Source: SSE Renewables
