Introduction
Pathfinder Clean Energy (PACE) has established PACE Poland – its solar farm development and project acquisition business in the country to support Poland’s clean energy transition.
The company has completed detailed market and technical analysis in Poland over the last 18 months and has identified and advancing its first 100MWp of early stage solar projects. The PACE Poland office will be located in Torun, north of Warsaw, from where PACE will co-ordinate its development and acquisition of projects across the country.
The move by PACE coincides with the Polish Government’s publication of its Energy Policy to 2040, which will see a reduction in coal generation (72% generation market share to 56% by 2030) and an increase in renewables – offshore wind, onshore wind and solar. PV solar capacity is targeted to increase from 3.6GW to 5-7GW by 2030, with 20GW of PV solar installed by 2040. Last year, PV solar capacity tripled, so some commentators consider the 2030 target to be a conservative one.
Poland will be the fourth market PACE has established an office since its formation in 2017 and adds to its existing over-1GW development pipeline – with the first 67 MWp of UK projects due to enter operation this year (2021).
PACE Poland’s initial portfolio of 100 MWp of solar is across the north of Poland, connecting to the high voltage grid lines with the Enea and Energa Grid Operators. Subject to planning and financing, PACE’s first phase of projects should be able to achieve connection from 2022.
Alex Ross, Development Director of PACE, said: ‘‘Over the last 18 months, we have worked to digitise the constraints in the country to enable our team to evaluate opportunities quickly and identify the first 100MW of potential projects that is our core minimum threshold for any new market. This hurdle has now been reached.”
““Poland’s development process does have its challenges with certain grid confirmations coming later in the process but given the Government’s policy commitment to renewables and its 2030 targets, this is the right time for PACE to bring its expertise for the long term’.
Rob Denman, Managing Director of PACE said: ‘We consider Poland as a core market for growth as the country reduces its reliance on coal generation and renewables becomes increasingly competitive. Required power generation in Poland is estimated at 244 TWh in 2050 to keep up with the expected consumption growth, driven by industry, households and transportation demand. This trend coupled with lower supply from conventional sources due to expected hard coal / lignite decommissioning is expected to create space for new clean energy capacity. This market also benefits from EU policy and Polish regulatory framework support.”
“PACE’s development and acquisition team is highly tech-led through its market-leading inhouse software to enable us to identify and manage risks on multiple projects and across our multiple markets and we are delighted to expand our interests into this exciting market.”.
About Pathfinder Clean Energy (PACE) – http://pathfinderce.com/
Paul Taylor, Taylor Keogh Communications: +44 (0)20 8392 8250 / paul@taylorkeogh.com
Ben Chippendale, Pathfinder Clean Energy: +44 (0)20 7127 4542 / ben.chippendale@pathfinderce.com / press@pathfinderce.com
Pathfinder Clean Energy (PACE)- established in 2017 – is an international clean energy developer and investor currently operating in Spain, Canada and the UK and with ongoing business development in other growth markets. PACE’s team brings over 40 years and 1GW of experience from across the asset cycle – from development to financing, construction and operation. The company uses the latest cloud-based proprietary technology to collaborate across global markets and projects to enable its projects to deliver competitive power prices under PPAs or bids into government auctions. PACE’s understanding and management of the complete life cycle of a project provides security to low cost capital to provide a route to deploying at scale and across multiple international clean energy markets.
www.pacepoland.com
About the Polish market
Poland has achieved stable growth in electricity consumption of 33% since 1990. After recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, Aurora projects a 49% increase in power demand from 2022 until 2050. Since 2016 there has been a stable support framework via an auction system for CfD which was successfully implemented and is to be continued until 2026. There is also increasing interest in corporate Power Purchase Agreements.
As part of its EU membership, Poland is obliged to meet targets for share of renewable energy in consumption set by the Union at 25% by 2030. The European Commission’s new budget grants Poland EUR 50bn for the energy sector transition towards climate sustainability. Poland will receive EUR 125 bn of grants from the EU budget and the recovery fund in total.
For renewable technologies (RES) in Poland, their profitability is strongly enhanced by the increase in the market electricity prices, driven by rises in CO2, high domestic coal costs and decreasing project capex. The expected market price increase is driven by still significant coal based generation, increase of expensive gas fuelled installations replacing part of the coal capacity and the increase of energy consumption. As a result, electricity prices in Poland are higher than in most West and Northern European countries.
Development of RES is a key strategic direction of the Polish Energy Policy 2040 (PEP 2040) and National Plan for Energy and Climate, with solar PV generated electricity instrumental in securing the summer peak demand. As part of the announced Energy Policy of Poland, it is anticipated that an additional 20GW of solar PV will be installed over the next 20 years.