What goes on in Poland on the 3rd of March.
More American and German stakeholders join call for freeing Poland’s onshore wind
The Polish Wind Energy Association (PSEW) reports that new stakeholders from the United States and Germany have joined the call for liberalization of the law that curbs onshore wind in Poland.
The American Chamber of Commerce, the Polish-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Bosch and Siemens have joined PSEW’s appeal to the Prime Minister and the Polish parliament to amend the Wind Energy Investment Act. They want the bill to set the minimum distance between wind turbines and buildings at 500 meters, not 700 meters as it had been proposed in the now infamous MP Marek Suski’s amendment (aka the Suski amendment).
Earlier the appeal had been already signed by global giants, including Google, Mercedes, IKEA, Amazon, the Metallurgical Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Cement Ożarów, the Association of Cement manufacturers and the Polish Chamber of Automotive Industry.
PGE and ZE PAK to launch a company that will build NPP with Korea
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State Assets Jacek Sasin said in an interview with Radio Plus that in a few weeks PGE and ZE PAK will launch a company that will directly cooperate with South Korea’s KHNP on building a nuclear plant in Pątnów.
Sasin assured that the government was hammering out the details on the NPP with the Korean partners. „PGE and ZE PAK have reached an agreement to start a company in Poland. On Tuesday they have already applied to the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection for the establishment of such a company, so it will be launched in a few weeks. We are also looking forward to the visit of my Korean counterpart, with whom we will sign an agreement on cooperation in the field of nuclear energy development. This is a business project, not a government project. In the autumn we will reveal two alternative locations, one of them will be Bełchatów, we are looking for the second one,” Sasin promised.
On October 30, 2022, PGE (state-owned, largest energy sector company with respect to sales revenues and net profit), ZE PAK (private company that owns 3 power plants, responsible for 4% of power generation in the country) and KHNP signed a letter of intent on the construction of a nuclear power plant in Pątnów. The Ministry of State Assets and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of Korea also concluded intergovernmental cooperation agreements.
PGE will receive more than two billion in revolving loan
Polska Grupa Energetyczna has signed a contract for a revolving loan of PLN 2.33 billion. The loan from a syndicate of six banks cannot be spent on investments in carbon assets.
According to the agreement, the loan can be used to finance PGE’s ongoing activities, in particular those in line with its long-term strategy to reduce emissions and increase electricity production from renewable sources, to finance investments and capital expenditures other than investments in new coal assets, and to refinance financial liabilities. The syndicate of banks includes Pekao, PKO BP, Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Alior Bank and Santander Bank Polska.
The final repayment deadline is February 26, 2027.