The Polish Energy Regulatory Office (ERO) has announced the final results of its solar and wind auction for projects above 1 MW and another procurement exercise for renewables up to 1 MW in size. The tenders were held on in the first two weeks of December.
In the first of the two auctions, solar accounted for around 570 MW at PLN 207.85 ($50.78)/MWh and for wind power it was PLN 139.64/MW. The ERO had set a ceiling price of PLN 320 /MWh for solar projects and PLN 250/MWh for wind. Approximately 14 TWh of electricity was contracted and around PLN 3.2 billion was allocated. The ERO specified that the winning bids were selected not only for the offered price but also for the order in which the bids were submitted. “This is the result of a large number of submitted offers,” it further explained.
In the second procurement exercise, all of the contracted capacity – around 300 MW – went to PV projects. The lowest bid came in at PLN 219($53.51)/MWh and the highest at PLN 278.9/MWh. The ceiling price set by the Polish regulator was PLN 340/MWh. Around PLN 2.5 billion was allocated for the purchase of 2.7 TWh of energy.
In the last auction for projects over 1 MW, held in June, solar accounted for roughly 1.2 MW of the allocated power. Overall, the ERO allocated approximately 1.5 GW of renewable energy power generation capacity in the auction, including about 300 MW of wind power.
The last procurement exercise for projects not up to 1 MW in size also resulted in PV securing all the allocated capacity of 1 GW.
Poland has currently an installed PV capacity of more than 6.3 GW. The Polish PV market is expected to grow strongly during the current decade to reach 30 GW of installed capacity by the end of 2030, according to the Polish research institute Instytut Energetyki Odnawialnej (IEO).