On October 21, representatives of Poland’s largest power producer PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna, its subsidiary PGE Baltica and the city of Ustka signed a letter of intent to locate a service port for offshore wind farms in Ustka.
The letter of intent assumes that the establishment of service facilities for the planned offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea is to be built by PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna. The advantage of Ustka is the location of the harbour, comparing to the planned wind farms, its size, good navigational conditions, accessibility of investment areas as well as positive attitude of the city authorities and the harbour management towards the planned project.
Jacek Maniszewski, the mayor of Ustka, emphasised that the city is facing a development opportunity and offshore wind energy opens up an economic opportunity for Ustka.
– I am glad that PGE, as the largest energy company in Poland, wants to be present in our port and plans to establish a service base for wind farms in our harbour – said the representative of Ustka.
According to Maniszewski, the service base will contribute to economic development, creation of new jobs, intensive use of accommodation, but also the development of business services.
The President of the Board at PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna Wojciech Dąbrowski said during the event, that the location of the service port is extremely important to the investor. Ustka was considered by the PGE authorities from the very beginning. He emphasized that PGE is a reliable partner. The investor will actively participate in the city’s undertakings and support Ustka’s development
Dąbrowski added that PGE will support local business as well as the one located about 60 km from the sea coast.
“We will build a 2.5 GW wind farm there in 2026, which we will develop with the Danish Ørsted group. In the first stage we want to spend PLN 40 billion together with our partner. So it is a huge amount. The development of offshore wind farms will bring about 70,000 new jobs, and will be the flywheel of the Polish economy. We will not be the only investor in the Baltic Sea, but we will be the largest in the first decade”, said Dąbrowski.
He added that the investor wants to support, first of all, the Polish economy and Polish entrepreneurs. – We have many specialists, many companies specialized in many branches. We hope that companies from this region will become active – added the President of the Board at PGE.
Speaking to reporters after the press conference, Dąbrowski said that the construction of the port will begin in 2024. “We need to adapt the port wharf to our needs, which will involve the need to rebuild the wharf and the area next to the port”, he said as quoted by ISBNews.
Grzegorz Wysocki, President of the Board at PGE Baltica, pointed out that today there is a real chance to see what the Polish local content in the offshore wind energy sector looks like
“The city of ustka and the PGE Group are implementing a plan to exploit the offshore potential in Poland. Today we have committed to set up a service base for our wind farms here. We declare that with all determination we will carry out all the tasks entrusted to PGE Baltica by the PGE Baltica Group”, said Wysocki.
