Orlen Wind 3 has acquired a solar portfolio in the Polish provinces of Zielona Góra and Poznań, where expansion work is currently underway to expand the capacity to 280MW.
The company is a subsidiary of the Orlen Group, a Polish energy company, and acquired the portfolio, alongside a 26MW wind farm in the province of Łódź, from EDP Renewables Polska. The solar portfolio acquired consists of 40MW project in the village of Chotków, in Zielona Góra, and a 200MW project in Przykona, in Poznań, at a former lignite strip-mine.
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An expansion project is currently underway at the latter project, which will add 40MW to its operating capacity, and will make the facility the largest PV project in Poland upon completion, scheduled for the end of this year.
“We promised to accelerate our efforts, and we’re delivering on that promise,” said Ireneusz Fąfara, Orlen CEO and president of its management board. “This new agreement will add over 300MW to our renewable energy portfolio, which is nearly a third of what we’ve built in renewables over the recent years.
“But it’s not just about the scale – this deal also makes strong economic sense for us and offers a real chance of enhancing the Orlen Group’s value.”
The deal, and related expansion work, take place amid considerable growth in the Polish solar sector. Last year, Polish developers added 4.6GW of new capacity, pushing the country’s total operating capacity to 17GW, the highest among all renewable technologies.
A number of other developers have recently commissioned projects in the country, such as Lightsource bp, which brought online a 40MW project last month, and the Orlen Group is looking to expand its clean power portfolio further, aiming to expand its operating renewable power capacity to 9GW by the end of the decade.
In its latest National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), Poland expects renewable energy sources to account for 50.1% of its electricity mix by 2030, with the country’s installed solar capacity set to reach 29.3GW, close to double that of the wind sector. By 2040, the document suggests that renewable power sources could account for as much as 59.1% of the country’s electricity generation.
However, these are ambitious projections considering Poland’s strong reliance on fossil fuels. According to Ember Climate, fossil fuels accounted for close to 73% of the country’s electricity production last year, with coal alone responsible for 61%. Poland’s targets for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius include removing coal from the energy mix by 2030, and fossil fuels by 2035.
