Polish Briefing: Act on offshore to come into force in February

What goes on in Poland on the 22nd of December.

Act on offshore to come into force in February

The act on promoting electricity generation in offshore wind farms will not come into force on January 1, 2021. The Sejm (the lower chamber) adopted the law on Thursday, December 17, but the Senate will not adopt it this year. The Senate Extraordinary Committee on Climate Affairs will start work on the document on January 4, 2021.

The Senate’s work schedule shows that the next meeting will be held on January 11, 12 and 13, 2021, and the Special Committee for Climate Affairs will deal with the act on January 4. If the Senate decides not to introduce any amendments to the law, the legislation will pass in mid-January, and it will be signed by the president in the second half of January. If the president does not voice any doubts and signs it immediately, then it may enter into force on February 1.

The bill passed in the Sejm with an overwhelming majority – 443 out of 460 MPs were for it, one was against and six abstained. Therefore, even though the opposition has the majority in the Senate, it seems the higher chamber may pass it without introducing its own amendments.
The new regulations provide that in the first phase of the support system for offshore wind farms with a total installed capacity of 5.9 GW, the aid will be granted by way of an administrative decision by the president of the Energy Regulatory Office (ERO). Entry into this system ends on June 30, 2021. Applications must be submitted to the President of the Energy Regulatory Office before March 31. Then each project will have to be approved by the European Commission.

The rate of the price, which is the basis for the settlement of the negative balance in the first phase of the support system, will be determined in the regulation issued by the minister responsible for energy, based on macroeconomic indicators.

Subsequent projects will take part in competitive auctions. The first will be held in 2025 and the second in 2027 (2.5 GW each).
The act also provides for a special fee for offshore wind farms, due to the fact that they are not subject to real estate tax. The taxable amount will be equal to the capacity of the farm multiplied by a coefficient, which cannot be higher than PLN 23 thousand per MW.