‘Basically no connections being granted’: Polish solar sector facing grid headache

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
Panellists during this week’s Solar Finance & Investment Europe event in London. Image: Gareth Davies.

The considerable expansion of Poland’s solar PV market looks set to continue, with interconnection issues standing as the only impediment to growth, according to panellists speaking at the Solar Finance & Investment Europe 2023 conference.

Agnieszka Kulinska, partner heading the renewable energy team at law firm Dentons, said: “It’s an issue that basically there are no grid connections being granted right now. The operators are saying we don’t have any capacity, we don’t know when there’s going to be capacity.”

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis

Photovoltaics International is now included.

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
  • Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
  • Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

The European Investment Bank recently firmed up a US$449 million financing agreement to support the development and modernisation of the Polish distribution network last month, to furnish the system with investments through 2025.

That’s yet to take effect, however, as Albert Winid, senior investment manager at finance company Abrdn reiterated: “We’ve tried to approach the operators looking for proactive solutions, whether we put in storage or pay for upgrades. We haven’t been successful. The challenge is that it’s such an enormous problem.”

He added: “In a way, it’s not even a Poland-level issue, but it’s almost a regional issue. There are parts of Poland where these relationships are much smoother, and there are parts of Poland where these relationships are much more difficult.”

Outages have also been an issue in Poland. Records from the Polish Power Exchange show fairly regular outages, both planned and unplanned, across a number of power plants. “The outages are getting longer and bigger. We’re acutely aware that the issues with the grid are there,” Winid said.

However, wider awareness of capacity constraints and the need to address the issues were discussed during the panel, and relations between utilities and PV stakeholders seem set for improvement. “Polish state utilities…want to partner with established international operators. It’s notable that there is a shift at the utility level that now we really are taking this seriously,” Winid said.

The trend seems to be that the Polish PV market has accelerated and grown far quicker than the grid operators expected or have been able to keep up with. According to SolarPower Europe’s end-of-year report, Poland installed 4.9GW of solar PV capacity in 2022, the third highest in Europe after market leaders Germany and Spain.  

SolarPower Europe said in the report that in November 2019 the country had around 2GW of solar installed; November 2022 saw almost 12GW total capacity.

“I think the speed of the transition absolutely caught everyone unaware,” said Winid. “And I think the speed at which people became comfortable with the Polish market was really remarkable.”

One solution to the capacity shortage is energy storage, which all of the speakers said was a priority, with significant demand across Poland. The PV and renewable energy markets are unlikely to slow their remarkable growth from 2022, leaving necessary solutions to be found.

25 November 2025
Warsaw, Poland
Large Scale Solar Central and Eastern Europe continues to be the place to leverage a network that has been made over more than 10 years, to build critical partnerships to develop solar projects throughout the region.
2 December 2025
Málaga, Spain
Understanding PV module supply to the European market in 2026. PV ModuleTech Europe 2025 is a two-day conference that tackles these challenges directly, with an agenda that addresses all aspects of module supplier selection; product availability, technology offerings, traceability of supply-chain, factory auditing, module testing and reliability, and company bankability.
10 March 2026
Frankfurt, Germany
The conference will gather the key stakeholders from PV manufacturing, equipment/materials, policy-making and strategy, capital equipment investment and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out PV manufacturing out to 2030 and beyond.

Read Next

June 30, 2025
Eni subsidiary Plentiude has started operations at the northern block of its 330MW Renopool solar portfolio in Spain.
June 30, 2025
Voting on the US tax reconciliation bill is expected to begin in the Senate today, following a draft published on Friday that hit clean energy tax credits hard.
June 30, 2025
Australian module manufacturer Tindo Solar has secured a 30MW solar module supply agreement to power Australia's first "net zero pipeline”.
June 27, 2025
Renewables investment platform Nexwell Power has signed a round of power purchase agreements (PPAs) with “one of the largest” US tech companies for solar PV capacity to be built in Spain.
June 27, 2025
Statkraft has signed PPAs with Better Energy to purchase energy from two solar power plants in Poland with a total capacity of 64GWh.
June 27, 2025
PV Tech spoke to Monika Paplaczyk about recent changes in the UK energy mix and opportunities for investors in the solar sector.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Webinars
June 30, 2025
10am PST / 6pm BST
Solar Media Events
July 1, 2025
London, UK
Solar Media Events
July 1, 2025
London, UK
Media Partners, Solar Media Events
July 2, 2025
Bangkok, Thailand
Media Partners, Solar Media Events
September 2, 2025
Mexico City, Mexico