1.

1 Energy in Poland
Until 1990 the Polish energy sector followed the stereotype of Eastern
European centrally planned economies. Despite of highly intensive economy
in relation to national income its per capita energy consumption was still
low compared to other Western European nations. Polish energy sector was
one of the largest in the Polish economy accounting for about 10% of its
GDP.
After 1990 Poland started to liberalise its economy and as soon as in
the energy sector unbundling started. Privatisation and market opening for
foreign investment in energy sector were added during 1997 to 1999.
Unbundling led to 28 power generation companies, 33 power distribution
and Polish Power grid Company (Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne S.A) for
electricity transmission and trade. Since the mid 1990's Polands main
objective was to register as the member of EU. After registering their
membership in EU on 2004, Polish energy sector started following the Energy
Law of the European Union. It paved way for third party access, independent
power production, Renewable energy investments and mechanisms for
rational & efficient usage of energy, integrated resource planning, energy
labels. Also Energy Regulatory authority (Urzd Regulacji Energetyki, URE)
was established for issuing license for generation, distribution, transmission
and to check the quality measures & to control prices in the market.
Electricity market was opened gradually after 1999. In 2000 Polish power
exchange (Towarowa Gieda Energii, POLPX) started its operation.
Right from beginning the Polish energy sources are dominated by coal
and the demand for electricity in Poland has not changed much from 1990's
until now. Fossil fuels are the primary energy sources used in Poland. Poland
is the second largest consumer of coal after Germany in EU. Forecasts say
that the energy consumption might grow 1.5% from 2010 to 2020 and usage
of renewable will account for 12% by 2020.

FIGURE 1.1 PRIMARY ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN POLAND

163.2 TWh is the total volume of electricity produced by Poland in the year
2011. 157.9 TWh was used and the rest were exported. Below is the table
showing energy forecast for Poland.
TABLE 1.1 ENERGY FORECAST FOR POLAND (TWh)
Year
2015
2020
2025
2030
Final energy
115.2
130.8
152.7
171.6
Energy Sector
11.6
12.1
12.7
13.3
Transmission and other
13.2
13.2
15.0
16.8
losses
Net demands
140.0
156.1
180.4
201.7
Own needs
12.8
13.2
14.2
15.7
Gross demand
152.8
169.3
194.6
217.4
1.2 Renewable energy sector in Poland
Renewable energy also develops quite fast in Poland. There are lot of
wind power installations in the northern part of Poland and about 50%
renewable power produced by Poland are from wind farms. Data from
Energy regulatory office (URE), has stated that there are 663 wind farms with
capacity of 2341 MW by the end of 2012.

FIGURE 1.2 SHARE OF RES IN ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN 2010 & 2020

As by the "EU Directive 2009/28/EC" all European nations are required
to increase its renewable energy production in order to support the
prevention of environmental deterioration. Hence Polish government had
aimed to increase the proportion of energy from renewable sources in final
energy consumption up to 15.5% in 2020 (19.3%-electricity, 17%-heating and
cooling, 10.2%-transportation fuels).

Economic Chamber of Renewable Energy, Poland has quoted that 8% of

its final energy consumption were from renewable by the year 2010.
Accounting for electricity - 7% share of green energy, for heating and cooling
it is 12% and for transportation it is about 5.5%.
TABLE 1.2 POTENTIAL OF RENEWABLE ENERGY IN POLAND
Type of renewable
energy source
Biomass:
solid dry waste
biogas (liquid
waste)
wood (forests)
Energy crops
Wind energy
Solar energy:
thermal
photovoltaic
Hydropower

Real economic
potential - final
energy
[TJ]
600.167,8
165.930,8
123.066,3

Utilization of economic
potential in 2020 (real market
potential)
[TJ]
[%]
533.117,5
88.8
149.337,7
90.0
72.609,1
59.0

24.451,8
286.718,9
444.647,6
83.312,2
83.152,9
159.3
17.9744

24.451,8
286.718,9
119.913,3
19.422,2
19.262,9
159,3
11.144,2

100.0
100.0
27.0
23.3
23.2
100.0
62.0

Source: Moliwoci wykorzystania odnawialnych rde energii w Polsce do roku 2020,

IEO

1.3 Solar power in Poland

By the year 2012 there were about 1.2 million m2 of solar collectors
was installed and used in Poland, which yielded 848 MW capacity (19%
increase from previous year). After biomass heating plants, solar collectors
are the second most source of "green heat" in Poland. Comparing to the year
2011 the polish solar collector sales & installation has moved two ranks up
from 4th to 2nd in the year 2012 among European nations. As per the
information by Polish Energy Regulatory Office, solar power produced by the
year 2011 accounted approximately only for 2MW.

1.4 Implementation of the European Union law in Poland

The obligations of Polish renewable energy programs come from the
nation's participation in the European Union and from other international
agreements. The obligations are:
1. From the year 2008 2012 Poland should achieve 6% reduction in
CO2 emissions comparing to the level of 1988 by agreeing and
participating in the Kyoto protocol.

2. From the gross electricity consumption about 7.5% should be from

renewable according to the European Union Directive 2001/77/EU.
3. By the year 2010 5.75% of share should be possessed by the BioFuels in the liquid fuel consumption according to the European
Union Directive 2003/30/EU.
Those obligations are reflected in the strategic documents that shape Polish
ecological policy and energy policy and in the main legal act that establishes
and regulates the rules of energy policy of the country as well as the
conditions of supply and consumption of fuels and energy the Energy Law.
The Energy Law together with the Ordinance of Ministry of Economy from
2005 create the incentives for promotion electricity production from
renewable energy sources through:

The necessity to buy or to produce electricity from renewable energy

sources by enterprises dealing with production or sale of the energy
for the final consumers in the form of obtaining and presenting
certificates of origin to the Regulatory Body for extinction or in the
form acquitting the substitute payment,
system of fines for disobeying the above mentioned obligations,
directing the funds achieved from substitute payments and fines to
financial support of investments in renewable energy sources,
the obligation to buy all the electricity produced from renewable
energy sources,
decrease by 50% the costs of connecting renewable energy sources to
the grid,
facilitation of wind power plants,
priority of transmission services for the energy from RES,
concession charge exemptions for small producers of electricity from
the renewable energy sources and exemptions of fees for obtaining the
certificates of origin