The transition of businesses in Poland to green electricity is necessary to drive down costs, compete in international markets or remain part of global supply chains. This is also an effective measure to reduce dependency on Russian fossil fuels. The key is the popularisation of the cPPA model — direct sale of electricity to businesses — which has been very popular in Europe in the recent years.

More than 300 attendees discussed the future of RES in Poland during a conference of the Polish Wind Energy Association and the RE-Source Poland Hub Foundation in Warsaw. The participants included representatives of energy customers, RES electricity producers and vendors, Ministry of Climate and the Environment, Polish Power Exchange, Polish Development Fund or Polish Investment and Trade Agency.

The event created an opportunity for a debate on key political and legislative challenges that need to be overcome to unleash RES potential in Poland.

“An urgent liberalisation of the 10 h rule that today blocks the construction of new wind capacity is required. Moreover, we need to enable businesses to take advantage of RES electricity through direct lines and cable pooling. Removal of the existing barriers and creation of support schemes for new RES capacity is necessary for Polish entrepreneurs to benefit from inexpensive and carbon-free electricity in the cPPA model,”emphasized Szymon Kowalski, Vice-President of RE-Source Poland Hub.

Representatives of energy customers — both large, energy-intensive industries and smaller businesses — emphasized issues stemming from rapidly increasing market electricity prices. The key issue is unpredictability, which particularly affects companies where energy is a substantial cost.

“Our RES investments contribute to energy independence and competitiveness of the Polish economy. For us, unleashing the full potential of the Polish RES is the greatest opportunity for the country’s development. We will not stop in our strive towards energy transition, for we are guided by our respect for nautre,” emphasized Sebastian Jabłoński, CEO of Respect Energy, during the debate that opened the event.

The purpose of the RE-Source Poland 2022 conference, accompanied by several days of individual B2B meetings, was to provide practical knowledge on how to undergo the transition to green electricity — how to prepare and implement cPPAs. Conference participants rated the outlook for the Polish market as positive. The market is increasingly more mature. The awareness of the necessary changes and the need to streamline energy transition is growing.

“On one hand, PPAs open new opportunities for acquiring debt financing for large PV projects and are the missing ling between the auction scheme and the arm’s length sale of produced electricity. On the other hand, as Photon Energy we observe an increasing interest of business customers planning PV installations in their businesses, production plants or warehouse facilities in cooperation based on long-term lease of PV installations, what enables us to develop new business models,” said Maciej Górski, CEO of Photon Energy in Poland, who discussed the perspective of a company investing n PV installations.

The discussed matters that will determine the development of cPPAs in Poland included banks’ requirements for project financing outside auctions, including expectations for the content of cPPAs with respect to ratings, guarantees, sureties etc., and the role of energy trading companies in the design of such agreements. The discussion also pertained to models available in the Polish market and whether trading companies may bear part of the risk. The workshop part presented the pricing of cPPAs in Poland.