Polish Institute for Renewable Energy or Instytut Energetyki Odnawialnej (IEO) believes during the year 2020 Poland installed around 2 GW of new solar PV capacity taking the cumulative to exceed 3.5 GW at the end of last year. This would be more than a 150% increase over some 1.5 GW the market had installed at the end of 2019, it claims.
Back in August 2020 the country's grid operator Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne (PSE) said till August 1, 2020 aggregate solar PV installed in the country was over 2.26 GW (see Poland Crosses 2.26 GW Cumulative PV Capacity).
According to the statistics analyzed by the IEO, of the 2 GW added last year, almost 80% was driven by individual and business prosumers with their micro-installations. However, going forward as the current subsidies exhaust under the 'My Electricity' scheme, it expects growth rate of installations in this segment to slow down since the newer version will not be solely for PV industry.
Nonetheless, it expects the market to move forward with large scale solar farms as 2021 is the deadline for 1.2 GW capacity awarded in 2018 and 2019 auctions. Subsequent renewable energy auctions held in the country in 2020 give a good visibility to more than 1.56 GW of new PV plants of 1 MW or more to come up in 2021 and 2022 (see Small Scale PV Sweeps 8th RE Auction Of Poland For 2020).
IEO also points at a favorable investment environment for energy companies operating in the country as their shares grow on the stock exchange.
In an update shared in June 2020, IEO had predicted the cumulative installed PV capacity of the country at the end of 2020 to reach 2.5 GW and in the long term by 2025 it should add up to 7.8 GW (see Poland: 2.5 GW Cumulative PV Capacity By 2020-End). In its December released EU Market Outlook 2020-2024, SolarPower Europe saw Poland adding 2.2 GW in 2020 to a total of 3.6 GW and expecting a further 8.3 GW to be installed between 2021 and 2024.
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