Poland is sure to have crossed 4 GW of cumulative installed solar power capacity since the country’s grid operator PSE said till January 1, 2021 the aggregate had reached 3,935.74 MW. This, it added on its Twitter handle, represents an increase of 15% between December 2020 and January 2021.
Earlier this year in January 2021, Polish Institute for Renewable Energy (IEO) said the till the end of 2020, Poland had installed more than 3.5 GW PV capacity having added around 2 GW last year (see Poland Added 2 GW New PV In 2020: IEO).
Speaking to Reuters, Polish Climate Minister Michal Kurtyka called solar PV the ‘most dynamically’ developing renewable energy technology in the country. Poland aims to install 10 GW to 16 GW of solar PV in the country by 2040, under the Energy Policy or PEP2040 cleared in February 2021 even though it has carved out a role for nuclear power while continuing to hold on to coal (see Poland Approves Energy Policy Until 2040).
The Reuters report stated the number of households with solar panels increased to 450,000 as of December 2020, growing from 4,000 in 2015, thanks to the government offering generous subsidies for rooftop solar installations to the residential segment. Under the new policy, the government will continue to support big scale solar plants as well, shared the minister.
There are several large scale solar power plants being planned in the coal-reliant country of late. One of these is a 203 MW solar power plant announced by Respect Energy and Goldbeck Solar in January 2021 as the ‘largest’ such project in central and eastern Europe (see 203 MW Solar Power Project Coming Up In Poland).
According to the EU Market Outlook for Solar Power 2020-2024 by SolarPower Europe (SPE), Poland added 2.2 GW new PV capacity in 2020 making it the 1st year when it exceeded the annually installed solar GW scale, having added 972 MW in 2019. The report writers expect Poland’s total installed solar PV capacity in the medium scenario is pegged to grow to 11.9 GW by 2024 (see SolarPower Europe Says EU Added 18.2 GW Solar In 2020).
