PGE first to win area in Polish offshore wind seabed auction

State-run utility wins permit for 43.E.1 area off Ustka after auction for nearby zone flopped last week

Rodsand 2 offshore wind farm in the Danish part of the Baltic Sea.
Rodsand 2 offshore wind farm in the Danish part of the Baltic Sea.Foto: RWE

State-controlled Polish utility PGE was the first company to win an area in the seabed lease auction for a second phase of offshore wind development off the Eastern European country’s Baltic Sea coast.

The company obtained the highest number of points for issuing a permit for the 43.E.1 area, it said in a post on LinkedIn.

“It is close to the offshore wind projects we are implementing and the service port under construction in Ustka, which will allow us to take advantage of the synergies and scale of our operations,” the company said.

“This gives us an advantage and sets us apart from the competition, as it allows us to shorten processes and optimise costs of many project tasks.”

The allocation comes after the auction for another seabed lease zone – the 53.E.1 area – had flopped last week as according to the country’s infrastructure ministry “none of the applicants obtained the minimum qualification”.

PGE said the permit is another step towards achieving the company’s target of 6.5GW of installed Baltic Sea generation capacity by 2040.

The utility is already engaged in three offshore wind farm projects with a combined capacity of about 3.4GW. Among them are the Baltica 2&3 projects PGE is developing together with Danish offshore wind champion Orsted, which the companies plan to bring online by 2026 / 2027.

The projects are part of a first 5.9GW wave of pre-developed Polish offshore wind projects that already have been granted contract for difference (CfD) support.

The areas from the seabed lease auction are part of a second wave of projects, which the government has said will push Poland’s capacity of wind at sea power to close to 11GW by 2040.

More results of the seabed lease auction are slated to be made public in coming weeks.

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Published 12 January 2023, 10:22Updated 12 January 2023, 10:22
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