Polish transmission system operator (TSO) Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne (PSE) is planning to invest PLN64 billion (US$16 billion) in new transmission lines by 2034.
In its new draft development plan between 2025-2034, the TSO aims to add over 4,800km of new 400kV line tracks to upgrade Poland’s grid and would allow for 45GW of solar PV capacity to be added to the grid by 2034. Utility-scale PV projects would contribute around 20GW of capacity and rooftop solar 25GW.
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With 45GW of expected capacity for solar PV by 2034, the TSO targets a much higher goal for the technology compared to the government’s national energy climate plan (NECP) that it submitted earlier this month. In its latest NECP, Poland aims to have 29.3GW of installed solar PV by 2030, 22GW more than the previous NECP, submitted in 2019.
According to the TSO, at the end of 2023, solar PV had a total installed capacity of over 17GW in Poland – 18GW since Q3 2023, according to Polish research group Institute for Renewable Energy – up from less than 100MW in 2015. The growth came mostly from rooftop solar.
Since 2016, the government has held several auctions that included solar PV and between 2016 and 2023, more than 7.3GW of PV capacity was awarded, 2GW more than onshore wind. Nearly half (3GW) of all solar PV capacity auctioned during that period was contracted in 2021.
Moreover, as of the end of 2023, the TSO approved over 4.6GW of PV capacity, which will require the projects to be connected to the grid in the following two years since the application was approved.
“The implementation of the projects presented in the PRSP is an essential element of Poland’s energy transformation, and will ultimately allow our country to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The planned investments are a response to dynamic changes and will help prepare the network for them,” said Grzegorz Onichimowski, president of the management board at PSE.
One of the hot topics around Poland discussed at last year’s Large Scale Solar Central Eastern Europe event in Warsaw, was cable-pooling and the opportunities this would offer solar PV. Cable-pooling constitutes the sharing of grid connection capacity at a given grid connection point by two independent – and in this case renewable – power generation assets.
Poland continues to be a leading market for solar PV in Europe, behind only Germany, Spain and Italy, and added 4.6GW of capacity in 2023, according to trade association SolarPower Europe’s Market Outlook report.
Last year, PV Tech Premium covered the country in a two-part series, which looked at the grid issues and how to enter the market in the first part and at the rooftop market in the second .
| PV Tech publisher Solar Media will be organising the third edition of Large Scale Solar CEE in Warsaw, Poland during 26-27 November 2024. The event will focus on Eastern Europe with a packed programme of panels, presentations and fireside chats from industry leaders responsible for the build out of solar and storage projects in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Hungary. More information, including how to attend, can be read here. |